UC-NRLF 


B    M    m?   E5fl 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

GIFT  OF 

Mrs.  William  H.  Harrison 


PSYCH. 
LIBRARY 


THE    MYSTERY    OF    SLEEP 


BY 

JOHN   BIGELOW 


The  night-time  of  the  body  is  the  day-time  of  the  soul 

— Iamblichus 


NEW     YORK 

HARPER    &    BROTHERS    PUBLISHERS 

1897 


-^ 


fo}^ 


Copyright,  1896,  by  Harfer  &  Brothers. 

^U  rights  restrved. 


Add  to  UK 

GIFT 


Ieduc. 

PSYCH. 
LIBRARY 


TO  MY  READERS 


I  WISH  to  disclaim  any  pretension  to 
have   given  in  the  following  pages  a 
solution  of  all  the  mysteries  of  sleep,  or 
even  a  precise  and  scientific  exposition 
of  any  of  them.     When,  if  ever,  that 
shall  be  possible,  they  will  cease  to  be 
mysteries.     What  I  have  aimed  to  do 
is,  first   to    unsettle,  if   not  dispel,  the 
popular  delusion  that  sleep  is  merely  a 
state  of  rest ;  of  practical  inertia  of  soul 
and  body,  or  at  most,  a  periodical  pro- 
vision   for   the  reparation  of  physical 
waste    in  the   sense   that  a  well,    ex- 
hausted during  the  day,  fills  up  in  the 
hours   of  the   night.     Second,    to   set 
forth  some  of  my  reasons  for  the  con- 


151 


iv  To  my   Readers 

viction  that  no  part  of  our  lives  is  con- 
secrated to  nobler  or  more  important 
uses  than  that  usually  spent  in  sleep  ; 
none  which  contributes  more,  if  so 
much,  to  differentiate  us  from  the 
beasts  that  perish  ;  that  we  are  de- 
veloped spiritually  during  our  sleeping 
hours  as  distinctly  and  exclusively  as 
we  are  developed  physically  and  intel- 
lectually during  our  waking  hours,  and 
finally  that  it  is  as  much  the  part  of 
wisdom  to  order  our  lives  so  as  to 
avoid  everything  apt  to  interfere  with 
or  impair  either  the  quality  or  quantity 
of  our  sleep,  as  in  our  waking  hours  it 
is  to  avoid  whatever  tends  to  interfere 
with  the  growth  or  impair  the  health  or 
perfection  of  our  bodies. 

I  should  be  sorry  to  incur  the  sus- 
picion of  having  sought  to  penetrate 
mysteries  which  are  impenetrable ;  of 
having     presumed     to     enter     w^here 


To    my   R.eaders  v 

angels  fear  to  tread,  but  I  have  yet 
to  learn  that  the  Great  Creator  has 
ever  refused  to  disclose  any  of  the 
mysteries  of  his  creation  to  his  creat- 
ures whenever  they  were  in  a  condi- 
tion to  comprehend  and  profit  by  the 
disclosure.  His  secrets  always  cease 
to  be  secrets  when  their  disclosure  will 
not  expose  them  to  profanation,  and  I 
venture  to  express  my  belief  that  the 
mysteries  of  sleep,  like  the  mysteries  of 
godliness,  of  charity,  of  the  domestic 
affections,  will  be  revealed  to  us  just 
so  fast  and  far  as  we  are  prepared  to 
receive,  without  profaning,  them. 

Were  the  mysteries  of  sleep  studied 
with  like  incentives  and  b}^  the  same 
class  of  minds  as  the  mysteries  of  elec- 
tricity are  now  studied,  the  former 
would  seem  to  us  no  more  mysterious 
than  the  latter,  and  the  results  would 
be  no  more  surprising. 


vi  To  my   Readers 

It  scarcely  requires  prophetic  vision 
to  foresee  the  time  when  the  art  of 
sleeping  will  be  taught  and  studied  as 
systematically  in  our  schools  of  science 
as  the  physiology  of  our  nutritive  and 
nervous  systems,  and  then  much  of 
the  literature  and  pseudo-science  now 
in  vogue,  relating  to  both,  will  find  its 
way  to  the  wallet  '*  wherein  Time  puts 
alms  for  Oblivion." 

Highland  Falls  on  Hudson, 
August  I,  1896. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 


Why  Do  We  Spend  One-third  of  Our  Lives  in  Sleep  ? 
The  Common  Theory  Fallacious — Neither  Soul, 
Mind,  nor  Body  has  any  Attribute  of  which  Fa- 
tigue can  be  Predicated — Recreation  from  Labor 
Found  in  Change  of  Employment I 

CHAPTER  II 
Sleep  Interrupts  all  Conscious  Relations  with  the 
Phenomenal  World— Induces  a  State  of  Absolute 
Unworldliness — Analogy  of  Sleep  with  One  of 
the  Fundamental  Processes  of  Spiritual  Regener- 
ation— Nocturnal  Darkness  an  Ally  of  Sleep — 
Our  Transformation  in  Sleep — Grindon — The 
Morning  Watch I3 

CHAPTER  III 
The  Morning's  Prophetic  Visions — Pliny — Lucretius — 
Voltaire  —  Dante  —  Ovid —  Parsons  —  Dreams  — 
Imperfect  Sleep  —  Somnambulism  —  Artificial 
Sleep — Hypnosis — Why  Different  Amounts  of 
Sleep  are  Required  by  the  Human  Race  at  Dif- 
ferent Ages 22 

CHAPTER  IV 

Changes  Wrought  During  Sleep  Psychical,  not  Phys- 
ical— Seclusion  from  the  World  most  Perfect  in 
Sleep — Indescribable  Importance  of  Events  in 
which  Sleep  was  a  Factor  as  Recorded  in  the 
Bible — Mohammed's  Dream 40 


viii  Contents 

CHAPTER   V 

Privation  of  Sleep — Its  Effects — How  Availed  of  by 
Toussaint  L'Ouverture  in  Defence  of  the  Inde- 
pendence of  Hayti — Causes  the  Death  of  the  Last 
King  of  Macedonia  —  Lunacy  —  Difference  in 
Sleeping  Habit  between  Domestic  and  Predatory 
Animals — Low  Average  of  Longevity  among  Sav- 
ages Explained — Habits  of  Venomous  and  Non- 
venomous  Serpents  Contrasted — Prominence  of 
Sleep  in  the  Machinery  of  Shakespeare's  Plays — 
Tendency  to  Sleep  in  Houses  of  Worship 
Explained— Dr.  Wilkinson — External  and  In- 
ternal Respiration 67 

CHAPTER  VI 

The  Need  for  Sleep  Diminishes  as  the  Organization 
of  Life  Becomes  More  Complex  —  Buffon — 
Repose  No  More  the  Final  Purpose  of  Sleep 
than  the  Gratification  of  our  Palate  the  Final 
Purpose  of  Hunger — The  Statue  of  Sleep  in 
Honor  of  vEsculapius — Letter  of  lamblichus      .   104 

CHAPTER  VII 

Swedenborg's  External  and  Internal  Memory — Cole- 
ridge's "Body  Terrestrial"  and  "Body  Celes- 
tial "—The  Operations  of  our  Non-phenomenal 
Life  Presumably  as  Important  as  Those  of  our 
Phenomenal  Life 113 

CHAPTER  VIII 

Why  We  Are  not  Permitted  to  be  Conscious  of  the 
Experiences  of  the  Soul  in  Sleep — How  We 
Should  Order  our  Lives  to  Reap  the  Utmost 
Benefit  from  Sleep 132 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  SLEEP 


CHAPTER  I 

Why  Do  We  Spend  One-third  of  Our  Lives  in  Sleep? 
The  Common  Theory  Fallacious — Neither  Soul,  Mind, 
nor  Body  has  any  Attribute  of  which  Fatigue  can  be 
Predicated — Recreation  from  Labor  Found  in  Change 
of  Employment 

Why  is  it  that  the  children  of  men 
are  required  by  the  inexorable  laws  of 
their  existence  to  spend,  on  an  aver- 
age, eight  out  of  every  twenty-four 
hours,  or  one-third  of  their  entire 
lives,    in   sleep  ? 

Why  are  their  memory  and  con- 
sciousness periodically  suspended  and 
so  large  a  part  of  every  day  appar- 
ently wasted,  that  might  be  devoted  to 
the  prosecution  of  the  duties  which  the 
Author   of    their   being   has    imposed 


2  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

upon  them,  or  in  such  innocent  indul- 
gences as  he  has  qualified  them  to 
enjoy  ? 

Why  is  this  apparent  waste  made 
one  of  the  conditions  of  life,  not  only 
to  those  who  are  supposed  to  have 
been  created  in  God's  image,  but  to 
the  animal  and  vegetable  kingdom  as 
well? 

These  are  questions  which  pass 
through  the  minds  of  most  thoughtful 
people  at  some  time  in  their  lives,  and, 
to  such  as  have  grasped  the  great  and 
pregnant  truth,  that  in  the  Divine 
Economy  there  can  be  no  Vv^aste,  they 
are  very  puzzling. 

Most  people  are  content  with  the 
theory  that  the  mind,  like  the  body, 
gets  fatigued  with  the  labors  of  the 
day,  and  needs  rest  for  the  reparation 
of  wasted  tissue,  as  the  soil  needs  fer- 
tilizing to  maintain  its  productiveness ; 


Why  Do  We  Sleep?  3 

and  that  one  hour  out  of  every  three, 
eight  hours  out  of  every  twenty-four, 
three  months  out  of  every  year,  and 
twenty-three  years  out  of  every  three 
score  and  ten,  are  only  a  fair  allow- 
ance for  that  purpose.  Such  in  sub- 
stance would  be  pretty  uniformly  the 
answer  that  would  be  made  to  these 
questions,  and  it  would  as  uniformly 
go  unchallenged.  Such  is  the  view 
which  has  been  always  taken  of  it  by 
what  is  called  Science.  Yet  such  an 
answer  assumes  many  things  as  facts 
which  are  not  facts,  and  any  reason- 
ing upon  them  therefore  must  be 
fallacious. 

In  the  first  place  it  is  not  true,  nor 
is  there  any  substantial  foundation  for 
a  suspicion,  that  the  mind  or  the  soul, 
the  animus  or  the  anima,  the  Intel- 
lectual or  the  spiritual  functions  of  our 
being,  can  ever  be  fatigued ;  that  they 


4  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

have  any  single  attribute  of  which 
fatigue  can  be  predicated.  Neither 
would  any  one  ever  suspect  such  a 
thing  if  he  reasoned  only  from  what 
he  knows  or  may  know  of  the  phe- 
nomena  of   sleep. 

The  faculties  of  memory  and  con- 
sciousness, which  are  suspended  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent  during  sleep,  are 
chiefly  needed,  so  far  as  we  have  any 
means  of  knowing,  for  dealing  with 
the  affairs  of  this  world  in  our  waking 
hours.  We  need  them  constantly  in 
the  management  of  our  business ;  in 
conducting  our  intercourse  with  our 
fellow-creatures ;  in  providing  for  the 
needs  and  exigencies  of  our  material 
existence,  and  more  than  all  in  appro- 
priating the  moral  lessons  which  it  is 
the  providential  purpose  of  our  every- 
day phenomenal  life  to  teach  us. 

In  our  sleep,  however,  we  have  little, 


The  Popular  View  Fallacious  5 

if  any  thing,  to  do  with  our  worldly  or 
phenomenal  existence,  and  what  we 
have  is  presumptive  evidence  of  imper- 
fect repose.  But,  says  science,  our 
bodies  require  rest  from  the  fatigues 
of  the  day  as  a  necessary  preparation 
for  the  duties  of  the  morrow ;  to  repair 
the  waste  of  tissues;  *'to  knit  up  the 
ravelled  sleeve  of  care."  The  notion, 
not  less  universal  in  old  times,  that 
the  sun  revolves  around  the  earth  was 
not  more  fallacious.  Were  it  true, 
the  need  of  rest  of  course  would  not 
be  limited  to  any  particular  region  or 
function  of  the  body.  Every  particle 
and  atom  of  it  must  share  that  neces- 
sity. But  we  find  that  so  far  from 
there  being  any  such  suspension  of  the 
energies  of  the  body,  it  is  impossible 
to  name  a  sinorle  one  of  those  func- 
tions  that  is  absolutely  suspended  dur- 
ing sleep.     Our  eyes  are  closed,   not 


6  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

because  the  faculty  of  opening  them 
or  seeing  with  them  is  suspended,  but 
simply  because  we  do  not  will  to  open 
and  see  with  them,  and  this  is  just 
what  happens  with  all  of  us  frequently 
in  our  waking  hours,  as  when  we  close 
our  eyes  to  exclude  the  light,  to  favor 
meditation,  or  in  prayer.  There  is  no 
visual  faculty  suspended  in  the  one 
case  more  than  in  the  other.  That 
our  hearing  is  generally  less  acute  dur- 
ing sleep  than  at  other  times,  is  not 
the  result  of  any  suspension  of  the 
auditory  functions,  but,  as  in  our  wak- 
ing hours  frequently,  from  the  lack  of 
attention.  Any  unusual  sound,  such 
as  would  be  likely  to  arrest  our  atten- 
tion in  our  waking  hours,  is  apt  to 
awaken  us  from  sleep.  No  one  can 
have  travelled  much  on  our  ocean 
steamers  without  remarkinor  the 
prompt   effect   of   any   unusual    noise, 


Sleep  not  Rest  7 

though  far  less  considerable  than  the 
familiar  noise  of  the  machinery,  upon 
the  sleeping  passenger.  Very  few  will 
sleep  through  even  a  pause  in  the 
operation  of  the  machinery.  A  dis- 
agreeable or  untimely  odor  will  often 
awaken  a  sleeper  as  soon  as  it  would 
be  noticed  by  him  when  awake.  Our 
hearts  do  not  take  a  moment's  rest 
from  the  hour  of  our  birth  until  our 
decease.  It  is  always  in  the  effort  to 
send  our  blood,  laden  with  vital 
energy,  through  every  vein,  artery, 
and  tissue  of  our  bodies  as  well  by 
night  as  by  day,  and  whether  sleeping 
or  waking.  The  lungs  too  are  equally 
restless  in  their  endeavor  to  provide 
themselves  with  fresh  air  to  purify  this 
blood  and  qualify  it  for  its  appointed 
uses.  The  process  of  inspiration  and 
expiration  by  the  aid  of  an  elaborate 
and  complex  system  of  muscular  con- 


8  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

traction  and  expansion,  goes  on  with 
an  unrelenting  vigor.  The  same  is 
true  of  our  stomach,  our  glands,  our 
kidneys,  and  of  all  our  mysterious 
digestive  apparatus.  Even  our  nails 
and  our  hair  are  as  tireless  as  our 
heart  or  lungs. 

The  student  when  he  wearies  of  one 
subject  seeks  his  recreation  in  another. 
He  drops  his  law  or  his  theology  or 
his  astronomy  and  takes  up,  mayhap, 
poetry  or  music  or  history.  I  knew  a 
clever  architect  who  diverted  his  mind 
from  professional  strain  by  the  study 
of  geometry,  and  always  travelled  with 
a  copy  of  Legendre  in  his  satchel. 
He  did  not  want  rest ;  he  wanted 
change.  Milton  went  to  his  organ  for 
diversion.  Dr.  Franklin's  favorite 
recreation  was  chess,  and  Jefferson's 
his  violin.  Whist  is  one  of  the  popu- 
lar recreations   for   professional   men. 


Rest  and  Its  Privilege  9 

People  whose  brains  are  most  severely 
exercised  are  apt  to  find  their  most 
congenial  recreations  in  games  of 
some  kind  which  require  a  concentra- 
tion of  the  mental  powers,  while  no 
one  of  them  finds  it  in  mental  in- 
activity. That  kind  of  recreation 
seems  to  be  the  exclusive  privilege  of 
the  idiot.  There  is  a  very  large  num- 
ber of  both  sexes  unfortunately  who 
do  little  or  nothing  from  one  week's 
end  to  another  to  fatigue  mind  or 
body,  who  yet  fall  asleep  just  as  punc- 
tually, and  sleep  quite  as  long,  as  the 
average  laboring  man. 

All  philosophers,  I  believe,  are  now 
agreed  that  matter  can  neither  be  in- 
creased nor  diminished  in  quantity  by 
any  thing  that  we  can  do.  How  can 
that  doctrine  be  reconciled  with  the 
idea  of  matter  becoming  fatigued  or 
needing  rest ;  and  how  can  we  explain 


lo  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

the  tireless  energy  of  the  countless 
planets,  which  have  been  dancing  to 
the  music  of  the  spheres  around  their 
respective  suns  from  the  dawn  of  crea- 
tion, and  without  relaxing  their  speed 
in  the  slightest  degree  or  stopping  a 
moment  for  repairs  in  all  the  myriads 
of  years?  If  any  particle  or  fraction 
of  our  bodies  requires  rest,  the 
planets  must  need  it  incalculably 
more.  We  shall  search  in  vain  for  any 
law,  attribute,  or  property  of  matter 
or  of  spirit  which  prescribes  for  either 
rest  as  an  end  or  subjective  necessity 
under  any  imaginable  circumstances. 
Then,  why  every  night  of  our  lives 
does  sleep  descend  upon  us  like  an 
armed  man  ;  prostrate  us  with  bar- 
barous indifference  on  beds  of  down 
or  straw,  and  close  up  all  our  com- 
munications with  the  work-a-day  world, 
as  in  death  ? 


What  We  Know  of  Sleep  n 

If,  as  it  is  no  presumption  to  assume, 
there  is  nothing  of  Divine  Ordinance 
that  oroes  to  waste,  there  must  be  a 
purpose  in  this  periodical  and  univer- 
sal change  which  we  call  sleep,  con- 
ceived in  infinite  wisdom  and  for  an 
infinitely  important  purpose. 

What,  then,  is  that  purpose  ?  Are 
we  turning  it  to  the  best  account  ?  If 
we  knew  that  purpose,  might  it  not 
invite  us  to  modify  many  of  our  habits 
of  life  ?  Can  we  contribute  in  any 
degree  to  the  advantages  it  is 
designed   to    secure   us  ? 

If  we  will  reason  from  what  we 
know,  or  easily  can  know  ;  if  we  will 
resist  the  propensity  to  confound 
material  phenomena  with  mental  and 
spiritual  operations,  and  keep  dis- 
tinctly before  our  minds  to  the  best  of 
our  comprehension  the  ends  or  final 
purpose  of  our  birth  and  experiences 


12  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

In  this  world,  need  we  despair  of 
obtaining  a  satisfactory  solution  of  all 
these  problems,  without  ascribing  to 
matter  or  to  spirit  attributes  which 
neither  possess,  and  without  any  way- 
ward Interpretation  of  the  ways  of 
God  to  men  ?  Let  us  begin  by  mak- 
ing a  note  of  some  of  the  things  which 
we  know  or  can  learn  of  the  phe- 
nomena of  sleep. 


CHAPTER  II 

Sleep  Interrupts  all  Conscious  Relations  with  the 
Phenomenal  World — Induces  a  State  of  Absolute 
Unworldliness — Analogy  of  Sleep  with  One  of  the 
Fundamental  Processes  of  Spiritual  Regeneration — 
Nocturnal  Darkness  an  Ally  of  Sleep — Our  Trans- 
formation in  Sleep — Grindon — The  Morning  Watch 

The  first  and  most  impressive  fact 
of  universal  experience  that  we  note 
as  an  incident  of  sleep  is  our  sudden 
and  complete  dissociation  from  the 
world  in  which  we  live ;  the  interrup- 
tion of  all  conscious  relations  with 
matters  which  engross  our  attention 
during  our  waking  hours.  No  matter 
how  much  we  are  absorbed  by  private 
or  public  affairs,  no  matter  how  vast 
the  worldly  interests  that  seem  to  be 
depending  upon  every  waking  hour, 
with    what    cares   we    are    perplexed, 


14  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

what  aspirations  we  indulge,  they  can 
postpone  but  a  few  hours  at  most  the 
visit  of  this  inexorable  tyrant,  while 
they  cannot  diminish  in  the  slightest 
degree  the  lawful  measure  of  his 
exactions.  Sleep,  like  death,  knocks 
at  the  doors  of  kings'  palaces  as  well 
as  poor  men's  cottages.  It  is  no  re- 
specter of  persons,  and  while  it  is  levy- 
ing its  tribute  we  are  unconscious  of 
every  thing  we  have  done  in  the  past ; 
and  of  all  we  were  planning  to  do  in 
the  future. 

Here  we  have  one  of  the  universal 
conditions  of  sleep  which  is  coincident 
and  in  harmony  with  one  of  the 
supreme  behests  of  a  Christian  life  : 
utter  separation  from  the  phenomenal 
world ;  an  entire  emancipation  for 
these  few  sleeping  hours,  from  the 
cares  and  ambitions  of  the  life  into 
which  we  were  born,  and  to  the  indulg- 


A  Life  above  the  World  15 

ence  of  which  we  are  inclined  by- 
nature  to  surrender  the  service  of  all 
our  vital  energies.  If  it  be  a  good 
thing  to  live  above  the  world,  to 
regard  our  phenomenal  life  as  transi- 
tory, as  designed  merely  or  mainly  to 
educate  us  for  a  more  elevated  exist- 
ence, to  serve  us  as  a  means,  not  an 
end,  then  we  have  in  sleep,  apparently, 
an  ally  and  coadjutor — at  least  to  the 
extent  of  periodically  delivering  us 
from  the  control  of  a  good  slave  and 
a  bad  master.  We  here  recognize  an 
incontestable  analogy  at  least,  between 
the  phenomena  of  sleep  and  the  funda- 
mental principle  by  which  the  regen- 
eration of  the  human  soul  is  to  be 
begun,  and  by  which  only  such  regen- 
eration can  be  successfully  prosecuted. 
The  very  existence  of  such  an  analogy 
is  a  fact  of  immeasurable  interest  and 
importance,  for  such  analogies  in  the 


i6  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

scheme  of  Divine  government  are  not 
accidental ;  are  not  without  a  purpose 
proportioned  to  the  dignity  of  their 
august  origin. 

There  is  another  provision  of  nature 
which  may  be  justly  regarded  as  an 
auxiliary  to  sleep,  and  which  is  quite 
as  universal  and  extensive  in  its  oper- 
ation. At  uniform  intervals  in  every 
twenty-four  hours  of  our  life  the  sun 
withdraws  its  light  and  covers  most  of 
the  habitable  portions  of  our  planet 
with  a  mantle  of  darkness.  This  not 
only  invites  sleep  by  withholding  a 
stimulus  which  discourages  it,  but 
practically  interrupts  or  modifies  all 
forms  of  industrial  activity ;  it  inter- 
feres seriously  with  locomotion  ;  like 
sleep  it  helps  to  interrupt  most  of  the 
plans  and  occupations  which  engage 
our  attention  during  the  sunlit  hours 
of  the  day  ;  it  breaks  the  hold  which 


Night  the  Ally  Of  Sleep  17 

the  world  has  upon  us,  and  emanci- 
pates us  from  the  dominion  of  our 
natural  propensities,  appetites,  and 
passions,  which  engross  us  to  so  great 
a  degree  in  our  waking  hours. 

Why  should  the  ploughman  leave 
his  plough  in  its  furrow  when  the  sun 
ceases  to  light  his  way  ?  Can  any 
other  more  satisfactory  reason  be  sug- 
gested than  that  he  may  for  a  few 
hours  be  as  one  dead  to  the  concerns 
of  his  farm  and  plough,  and  his  soul 
for  a  time  freed  from  their  distrac- 
tions ?  Whatever  may  be  the  final 
purpose  of  sleep,  that  also  is  obviously 
among  the  final  purposes  of  nocturnal 
darkness. 

The  morning  hour,  says  a  German 
proverb,  has  gold  in  its  mouth. 

If  our  sleep  has  been  undisturbed 
by  indiscreet  indulgences  of  the 
appetites    or    passions,  by    unwonted 


i8  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

anxieties  or  otherwise,  we  awake 
refreshed,  with  our  strength  renewed, 
our  minds  serene  and  clear,  our  pas- 
sions calmed,  our  animosities  soothed 
or  forgot,  with  kindlier  feelings 
toward  our  neighbors  than  at  any 
other  hour  of  the  day.  It  is  the  hour, 
too,  which  from  time  immemorial  has 
been  consecrated  by  saint  and  savage 
to  devotional  exercises. 

''  Every  one  knows,"  says  one  of  the 
profoundest  living  interpreters  of  the 
phenomena  of  life,*  ''  how  sweet  is 
the  restoration  derived  from  one's 
pillow  in  health  ;  more  wonderful  even 
yet  is  that  which  we  derive  when  sleep 
occurs  at  the  crisis  of  severe  disease. 
The    nocturnal     refreshment     of    the 

*  "  Life  ;  Its  Nature,  Varieties,  and  Phenomena,"  by 
Leo  H.  Grindon,  Lecturer  on  Botany  at  the  Royal 
School  of  Medicine,  Manchester.  Sixth  American 
Edition.  J.  B.  Lippincott  Co.,  Philadelphia,  1892. 
P.  349- 


Grindon  19 

physical  frame  induces  a  similar 
restoration  of  the  spiritual.  Relaxed 
from  the  tension  in  which  it  is  held 
toward  the  outer  world  while  awake, 
during  sleep  the  mind  sinks  into  a 
condition  comparable  to  that  in  which 
it  lay  before  consciousness  com- 
menced ;  all  images  and  shapes  it  is 
cognizant  of  by  day  either  vanish  or 
appear  only  as  reflected  pictures ; 
unexcited  from  without,  it  gathers 
itself  up  into  new  force,  new  compre- 
hension of  its  purpose ;  much  that 
crossed  the  waking  thoughts,  scattered 
and  entangled,  becoming  thereby  sifted 
and  arranged.  Hence  it  Is  that  our 
waking  thoughts  are  often  our  truest 
and  finest ;  and  that  dreams  are  some- 
times eminent  and  wise  ;  phenomena 
incompatible  with  the  idea  that  we 
lie  down  like  grass  into  our  organic 
roots  at  night  and  are  merely  resusci- 


20  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

tated  as  from  a  winter  when  we  wake. 
Man  is  captured  in  sleep,  not  by  death, 
but  by  his  better  nature ;  to-day  runs 
in  through  a  deeper  day  to  become 
the  parent  of  to-morrow,  and  to  issue 
every  morning,  bright  as  the  morning 
of  life,  and  of  life-size,  from  the  peace- 
ful womb  of  the  cerebellum." 

Of  this  mysterious  transformation 
no  one  has  sung  more  eloquently  than 
Henry  Vaughan,  the  precursor  of 
Wordsworth  as  the  interpreter  of  the 
mystical  and  symbolical  aspect  of 
nature,  in   his   lines   entitled 

THE  MORNING  WATCH 

Oh  Joyes !  Infinite  Sweetness  !  With  what  flowers 
And  Shoots  of  glory  my  soul  breaks  and  buds. 

And  the  long  hours 

Of  night  and  rest, 

Through  the  still  shrowdes 

Of  sleep  and  clouds, 
This  Dew  fell  on  my  breast : 

Oh  how  it  blouds 
And  Spirits  all  my  Earth  !     Heark  !     In  what  Rings 
And  Hymning  Circulations  the  quick  world 


Henry  Vaughan  21 

Awakes  and  sings ! 

The  rising  winds 

And  falling  springs, 

Birds,  beasts,  all  things 
Adore  Him  in  their  kinds. 

Thus  all  is  hurled 
In  sacred  Hyjnnes  and  Ordet',  the  great  Chime 
And  Symphotiy  of  nature.     Prayer  is 

The  world  in  tune 

A  Spirit  Voice, 

And  Vocall  joyes, 
Whose  Echo  is  heaven's  blisse, 

O  let  me  climbe 
When  I  lye  down.     The  pious  soul  by  nighte 
Is  like  a  clouded  starre,  whose  beames,  though  said 

To  shed  their  light 

Under  some  cloud, 

Yet  are  above, 

And  shine  and  move 
Beyond  that  mystic  shroud. 

So  in  my  bed. 
That  curtained  grave,  though  sleep,  like  ashes  hide 
My  lamp  and  life,  both  shall  in  Thee  abide.  * 

*  Quoted  in   "Life  and  Times  of  Kettlewell,"  by 
Frances  Lee. 


CHAPTER  III 

The  Morning's  Prophetic  Visions— Pliny — Lucretius — 
Voltaire — Dante — Ovid  —  Parsons — Dreams  —  Imper- 
fect Sleep — Somnambulism — Artificial  Sleep — Hyp- 
nosis— Why  Different  Amounts  of  Sleep  are  Required 
by  the  Human  Race  at  Different  Ages 

Why  should  our  minds  be  so 
much  more  alert  in  the  morning,  and 
problems  which  puzzled  and  defied 
solution  at  night  be  solved  with- 
out a  struggle  ?  Why  should  les- 
sons we  tried  in  vain  to  memorize  in 
the  evening  come  to  us  when  we 
awake,  with  verbal  accuracy  ? — a  com- 
mon experience  with  school  children. 
So  things  we  search  for  in  vain  at 
**  shut  of  day,"  we  will  often  know 
exactly  where  to  look  for  after  a 
night's  sleep.  It  is  then,  too,  that  we 
feel  the  charms  of  nature  most  keenly  ; 

22 


Transformation  by  Sleep  23 

that  we  are  most  disposed  to  extenu- 
ate the  misconduct  of  friends  and 
neighbors.  In  fact,  there  seems  to  be 
an  extraordinary  welling  up  of  charity 
in  us  durinor  the  hours  consecrated  to 
what  Hesiod,  the  Greek  poet,  de- 
scribes as  the  Brother  of  Death  and 
Son  of  Ni^ht. 

If  on  the  other  hand  we  are  sud- 
denly aroused  from  profound  sleep,  we 
are  apt  for  a  time  to  have  a  dazed 
feeling,  not  knowing  exactly  where  we 
are,  or  the  precise  import  of  what  is 
said  to  us.  We  act  as  though  sud- 
denly brought  from  more  congenial 
and  altogether  different  surroundings, 
from  which  we  have  been  wrested 
reluctantly.  Children  are  apt  to  cry, 
and  adults  to  scold.  We  are  made 
happy  when  permitted  to  close  our 
eyes  again  and  return  whence  we  came 
and  to  the  company  we  had  left. 


24  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

Every  mother  is  familiar  with  the 
smile  that  at  times  comes  over  her 
sleeping  infant's  face,  betraying  as  dis- 
tinctly as  ever  when  awake,  its  ex- 
perience of  pleasing  emotions.  The 
Elder  Pliny  takes  note  of  the  occa- 
sional habit  of  infants  sucking  in 
their  sleep  ;  and  also  of  their  some- 
times awaking  suddenly  with  every 
symptom  of  terror  and  distress.  Lu- 
cretius in  the  noblest  epic  poem  of  the 
Latin  tongue  speaks  of  race-horses, 
while  sleeping,  becoming  suddenly 
bathed  in  perspiration,  breathing 
heavily,  and  their  muscles  strained 
as  if  starting  in  a  race  ;  also  of  the 
hunting-dogs  while  fast  asleep  mov- 
ing their  limbs  and  yelping  as  if  in 
pursuit  of  the  deer,  until  awaking 
they  are  sadly  disabused  of  their  de- 
lusions : 

Donee  discussis  redeant  erroribusad  se. 


Voltaire's  Dreams  25 

Voltaire  tells  us  that  in  one  of  his 
dreams  he  supped  with  M.  Touron, 
who  made  the  words  and  music  for 
some  verses  which  he  sang.  Voltaire 
in  his  dream  also  made  some  rhymes 
which  he  gives : 

Mon  cher  Touron,  que  tu  m'enchantes 
Par  la  douceur  de  tes  accents. 
Que  tes  vers  sent  doux  et  coulants. 
Tu  les  fais  comme  tu  les  chantes. 

''  In  another  dream,"  he  adds,  "  I 
recited  the  first  canto  of  the  Henriade, 
but  differently  from  the  text.  Yester- 
day I  dreamed  that  verses  were  recited 
at  supper.  Some  one  remarked  that 
they  were  too  clever — ^7iz7  y  avail 
trop  d' esprit,  I  replied  that  the  verses 
were  a  fete  given  to  the  soul,  and  orna- 
ments were  required  for  fetes.  Thus 
I  have  in  my  dreams  said  things  that  I 
would  hardly  have  said  when  awake; 
I    have   had     reflections     in    spite    of 


26  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

myself,  in  which  I  had  no  part.  I 
had  neither  will  nor  freedom,  and  yet  I 
combined  ideas  with  sagacity,  and  even 
with  some  genius.  What  then  am  I, 
if  not  a  machine  ?  * 

In  the  same  paper  Voltaire  made 
this  important  statement :  "  Whatever 
theory  you  adopt,  whatever  vain 
efforts  you  make  to  prove  that  your 
memory  moves  your  brain,  and  that 
your  brain  moves  your  soul,  you  are 
obliged  to  admit  that  all  your  ideas 
come  to  you,  in  sleep,  independently  of 
you  and  in  spite  of  you — your  will  has 
no  part  in  them  whatever.  It  is  cer- 
tain, then,  that  you  may  thhik  seven 
or  eight  hotcrs  C07isec2itively,  with- 
out having  the  least  desire  to  think, 
without  even  being  aware  that  you 
thinks 


*  "  Dictionnaire  Philosophique,"  tit.  "  Sonmambider 
et  Son(rer." 


Morning  Dreams  27 

Dante  speaks  of  being  vanquished 
by  sleep 

Just  at  the  hour  when  her  sad  lay  begins, 

The  Httle  swallow,  near  unto  the  morning. 

Perchance  in  memory  of  her  former  woes, 

And  when  the  mind  of  man  a  wanderer  is 

More  from  the  flesh  and  less  by  thought  imprisoned 

Almost  prophetic  in  its  vision  is.* 

This  theory  of  morning  dreams  is  in 
accord  with,  and  no  doubt  an  allusion 
to,  what  some  call  a  superstition,  but 
which  would  be  more  respectfully 
described  as  a  conviction  among  the 
ancients  that  Somnzum  post  Sotmium 
efficax  est  atque  eveniet  sive  bonum  sit 
sive  mahim ;  a  conviction  which  Ovid 
perpetuated  in  the  following  lines : 

Namque  sub  Aurora  dormitante  lucerna 
Somnia  quo  cerni  tempore  vera  solent.  t 

The  truth  of  morning  dreams  as 
affirmed  in  the  lines  above  cited  from 

*"  Purgatorio,"  ix.  ii. 
fHeroidesEpist.  xix.  195. 


28  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

Dante,  was  the  happy  inspiration  of 
the  following  lines  of  the  late  T.  W. 
Parsons,  written  on  the  death  of  his 
wife's  cousin  : 

Presso  al  matting  del  vor  si  SOGNA.— Z>^/^/^ 

Love,  let's  be  thankful  we  are  past  the  time 
When  griefs  are  comfortless;  and,  though  we  mourn. 
Feel  in  our  sorrow  something  now  sublime, 
And  in  each  tear  the  sweetness  of  a  kiss. 
Weep  on  and  smile  then  :  for  we  know  in  this,  O 
Our  immortahty,  that  nothing  dies 
Within  our  hearts,  but  something  new  is  born  ; 
And  what  is  roughly  taken  from  our  eyes 
Gently  comes  back  in  visions  of  the  morn 
When  drea?ns  are  truest.     Oh,  but  death  is  bliss. 
I  feel  as  certain,  looking  on  the  face 
Of  a  dead  sister,  smiling  from  her  shroud. 
That  our  sweet  angel  hath  but  changed  her  place 
And  passed  to  peace,  as  when  amid  the  crowd 
Of  the  mad  city,  I  feel  sure  of  rest 
Beyond  the  hills  a  few  hours  farther  west. 

If  sleep  were  merely  a  rest  from 
fatigue,  merely  a  suspension  of  vital 
functions,  why  these  mental  and  moral 
changes ;  why  are  our  thoughts  more 
alert,  our   feelings  toward   our   neigh- 


Imperfect  Sleep  29 

bors,  our  sympathy  with  nature,  in  so 
many  respects,  different  on  waking 
from  what  they  were  before  sleeping  ? 

Dreams  ordinarily  imply  more  or 
less  imperfect  sleep  ;  a  partial  inter- 
ruption only  of  our  relations  with 
external  objects  ;  the  twilight  or  dawn 
of  the  phenomenal  world  as  we  are 
just  entering  it  in  the  morning  or  just 
leaving  it  at  night.  They  are  to  the 
sleeper  what  the  shore  is  to  the  swim- 
mer when  his  feet  get  support  from 
the  earthly  bottom.  Of  the  dreams,  or 
rather  of  the  mental  or  spiritual  opera- 
tions we  experience  between  this  twi- 
light and  dawn,  and  while  our  sleep  is 
profound,  our  memory  takes  no  note. 
We  are  only  conscious  of  dreams  which 
occur  when  the  phenomenal  world  is 
only  partially  excluded  from  our  con- 
sciousness :  when  we  are,  as  it  were, 
mounting   the   shore   from    the    deep 


so  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

waters  in  which  our  souls  have 
been  immersed.  Hence,  perhaps,  the 
confused,  inconsequential,  and  fan- 
tastic character  of  what  we  can 
recall  of  most  of  them.  The  pre- 
sumption, therefore,  is  that  what 
takes  place  in  our  profound  sleep, 
which  is  not  in  the  least  degree 
adulterated  by  sensual  influences  from 
the  phenomenal  world,  is  entirely  free 
from  what  seems  often  so  improbable 
and  fantastic  in  our  remembered 
dreams — which  are  obviously  a  medley 
of  emanations  from  two  widely  dif- 
ferent worlds  or  states  of  being. 

The  sleep-walker,  or  somnambulist, 
exhibits  at  times  even  more  vitality  and 
energy  than  he  would  be  capable  of 
exhibiting  in  a  waking  state.  He  not 
only  walks,  runs,  rides,  and  does  other 
thinofs  which  he  has  been  accustomed 
to  do,  but  with  his  eyes  entirely  closed 


The  Somnambulist  31 

he  seems  to  have  in  that  state  percep- 
tions supernaturally  acute.  He  walks 
with  confidence  and  safety  along  the 
roofs  of  houses,  on  the  banks  of  rivers, 
and  other  perilous  places,  where  noth- 
ing could  have  tempted  him  to  go  if 
conscious  of  the  danger.  What  is 
more  marvellous,  he  will  write  with 
critical  accuracy  in  prose  and  verse ; 
he  will  compose  music  ;  he  will  choose 
from  among  many  specimens  those 
best  adapted  to  the  most  delicate  work, 
with  a  promptness  and  precision  of 
which,  when  awake,  he  would  be  wholly 
incapable. 

Though  sleep,  like  the  tax-gatherer, 
visits  us  periodically,  and  whether  in- 
vited or  not,  there  are  kinds  of  sleep 
to  which  some  people  are  subject 
which  are  purely  voluntary.  Steadily 
gazing  at  certain  precious  stones  is 
said  to  induce  the  condition  in  which 


>iMMH:»^-.V 


32  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

the  early  soothsayers  acquired  their 
influence.  Looking  into  crystals  for 
purposes  of  divination  has  prevailed, 
we  are  told,  for  thousands  of  years  in 
Persia  and  among  the  fakirs  of  the 
East  Indies,  who  thus  abstract  their 
attention  from  all  objects  which  pro- 
voke interest  in  the  world  around 
them.  The  Omphapsychics  of^  Mt. 
Athos  accomplished  the  like  purpose 
by  concentrating  their  gaze  upon  the 
umbilicus  ;  others  by  looking  fixedly 
at  the  tip  of  the  nose,  thus  disengag- 
ing the  attention  from,  or  interest  in, 
their  environment  and  every  thing 
tending  to  the  world  and  its  daily 
concerns. 

It  deserves  to  be  noted  here  that 
neither  mesmerism,  animal  magnetism, 
hypnotism,  nor  any  of  the  modern 
forms  of  super-normal  or  voluntary 
sleep  can  with  propriety  be  attributed 


Therapeutics  of  Sleep  33 

to  fatigue  or  exhaustion.  It  is  also 
to  be  noted  that  all  are  used  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent  in  the  treat- 
ment of  disease,  and  as  a  part  of  the 
curriculum  of  the  most  important 
medical  schools  in  the  world.  The 
therapeutic  process  is  always  through 
the  psychical  to  the  physical ;  from  the 
higher  to  the  lower,  from  the  spiritual 
to  the  material ;  never  the  reverse. 

May  it  not  be  through  the  study  of 
the  phenomena  of  voluntary  or  arti- 
ficial sleep  that  we  are  to  look  for 
the  key  that  will  unlock  the  mysteries 
of  involuntary  sleep,  and  reveal  to 
us  more  than  we  yet  know,  at  least, 
of  what  goes  on  within  our  holy  of 
holies  during  the  hours  of  natural  or 
involuntary  slumber  ? 

It  is  also  to  be  noted  that  in  arti- 
ficial sleep  there  may  be  exhibited  the 
same  evidences  of  languor  and  fatigue 
3 


34  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

as  that  to  which  the  average  mortal 
succumbs  at  eventide,  though  the  sub- 
ject may  have  done  nothing  to  weary 
him,  and,  previous  to  his  hypnotiza- 
tion,  had  experienced  no  fatigue  or 
sleepiness  whatever.  This  is  another 
evidence  that  sleep,  languor,  or  fa- 
tigue may  be  an  ordinary  antecedent 
or  condition  precedent  of  sleep,  but 
in   no  sense  its  cause.* 

Hypnosis  may  be  induced  by  pre- 
senting to  the  hypnotic  any  one  idea 
or  image  either  by  speech  or  example, 
as  by  stimulating  the  organs  of  vision 
or  of  hearing  or  of  touch ;  by  the 
ticking  of  a  watch,  a  monotonous 
song  or  lullaby,  or  by  gently  stroking 
the  skin.  In  every  one  of  these  cases 
the  attention  of  the  hypnotic  is  con- 
centrated to  a  single  object,  and 
gradually  detached  from  all  else  of  the 

*  "  Hypnotism,"  by  Albert  Moll,  p.  23. 


Sleep  Proportioned  to  Age  35 

phenomenal  world.  This  is  the  one 
uniform  characteristic,  I  believe,  of  all 
hypnotic,  mesmeric,  and  lethargic  con- 
ditions, whenever,  wherever,  and  how- 
ever induced. 

The  changes  wrought  in  us  while 
sleeping,  as  a  rule,  vary  according  to 
the  amount  of  sleep  we  require,  and 
that  varies  with  our  age.  In  our  child- 
hood we  require  far  more  sleep  than  at 
later  periods  of  life,  and  the  younger 
we  are  the  more  we  need.  Infants,  in 
whom  we  are  able  to  discern  few,  if  any, 
traces  of  a  moral  sense,  sleep  most  of 
the  time.  It  is  during  this  period, 
before  their  rationality  is  developed, 
and  before  they  come  under  the  in-, 
fluence  of  the  world  and  its  tempta- 
tions, which  are  so  necessary  to  our 
spiritual  growth  later  in  life — in  other 
words,  before  the  moral  sense  can  be 
successfully  appealed  to,  that  the  seed 


36  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

is  planted  by  parental  love,  ^vhich  is 
destined  to  grow  and  shelter  them 
from  those  temptations  when  they  do 
assail.  Are  not  the  longer  hours 
which  infancy  and  childhood  require 
for  sleep  providentially  proportioned 
to  their  greater  spiritual  needs  ?  An 
infant  would  perish  in  a  few  hours  if 
allowed  no  more  sleep  than  would  suf- 
fice for  an  adult.  As  we  mature,  our 
need  of  sleep  gradually  diminishes. 

Old  people,  whose  ties  to  the  world 
not  already  severed  are  daily  weaken- 
ing, spend  fewer  hours  in  sleep,  as  a 
rule,  than  the  younger  of  any  age. 

Why  these  discriminations  of  nature 
between  the  old,  the  middle-aged,  ajid 
the  infant  ?  It  is  not  casual,  but  uni- 
form and  universal.  Did  fatigue  cre- 
ate a  need  for  repose,  why  should  the 
octogenarian,  trembling  with  weakness, 
sleep  least  ?     Why  should  the    infant, 


Why  the  Aged  Sleep  Least  37 

who  does  nothing  to  induce  fatigue, 
and  doubles  its  weight  out  of  its  over- 
flowine  abundance  of  life,  in  a  few 
months,  sleep  more  than  twice  as  much 
as  his  grandparents  ?  Obviously  be- 
cause we  tend  to  become  less  active 
and  more  contemplative  in  our  declin- 
ing years.  The  world  has  been  grad- 
ually losing  its  charm,  its  former 
allurements  cease  to  distract ;  the 
mind  feeds  upon  the  spiritual  experi- 
ences of  a  long  life,  less  disturbed  than 
during  our  earlier  years  by  the  temp- 
tations of  the  world,  the  flesh,  and 
the  devil.  They  therefore  may  be 
presumed  to  need  less  sleep  for  any 
moral  purpose  than  either  the  stalwart 
adult  or  the  puling  Infant. 

Following  this  line  of  thought,  we 
should  pause  to  take  note  of  the  fact 
that  one  by  one  the  several  senses  by 
which    we  hold   communion    with  the 


38  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

visible  world  cease  to  render  their 
wonted  service  as  we  advance  into 
the  autumn  of  life.  The  eyes,  to  use 
Milton's  expression,  ''their  seeing  have 
forgot,"  the  ears  their  hearing,  the 
skin  its  sensibility,  and  so  on.  Why, 
except  that  the  messages  which  it  is 
the  function  of  the  senses  to  bring  to 
us  from  the  external  world  are  becom- 
ing less  needful  to  us  or  more  hurtful, 
or  that  the  interruption  of  those  mes- 
sages is  required  to  supplement  the 
educational  offices  for  which  the 
hours  of  sleep,  usual  at  that  age,  were 
inadequate  ?  With  some  the  senses 
are  dulled  earlier  than  with  others. 
May  not  this  impairment  of  sen- 
sibility reflect  a  corresponding  spir- 
itual or  moral  condition  ?  Of  course, 
this  impairment  is  a  result,  not  a 
final  cause  or  purpose.  Of  what  is 
it   so  likely  to  be  the    result  as  of  a 


The  Necromancy  of  Sleep  39 

Divine  purpose,  similar  to  that  we  are 
ascribing  to  sleep,  of  diminishing  or 
checking  the  interference  of  the  phe- 
nomenal world  with  our  spiritual 
growth,  and  an  aid  to  us  in  overcoming 
the  world  ? 

Why,  and  whence,  the  vital  changes 
that  are  wrought  in  us,  of  whatever 
age,  in  a  few  hours  of  sleep  ?  Rest 
implies  inactivity,  a  suspension  of 
effort  and  exertion,  the  substitution 
of  idleness  for  labor.  If,  therefore,  all 
our  nobler  faculties  have  been  resting 
during  the  night,  have  been  doing 
nothing,  by  the  operation  of  what 
force  or  by  what  necromancy  are  we 
so  transfigured  in  the  morning? 


CHAPTER  IV 

Changes  Wrought  During  Sleep  Psychical,  not  Physical — 
Seclusion  from  the  World  most  Perfect  in  Sleep — 
Indescribable  Importance  of  Events  in  which  Sleep 
was  a  Factor  as  Recorded  in  the  Bible — Mohammed's 
Dream 

It  will  be  observed  that  of  the 
changes  which  distinguish  our  con- 
dition in  the  morning  from  our 
condition  in  the  evening,  the  most 
conspicuous  are  not  physical,  but 
psychical.  The  moral  side  of  our 
beinor  seems  for  the  time  to  have  been 
in  the  ascendant.  Having  ceased  for 
some  hours  to  be  pre-occupied  with 
what  is  purely  personal,  narrow,  and 
narrowing,  the  world's  hold  upon  our 
thoughts  and  affections  having  been 
temporarily  broken,  we  are  at  liberty 
for  a  time  to  realize  that  we  are  a  sub- 


The  Sabbath  of  the  Night  41 

stantive  part  of  the  universal  life  ;  to 
feel  the  spirit  of  the  ages  of  which 
we  are  a  product ;  to  look  up  from 
nature  to  nature's  God,  its  author, 
and  to  his  great  world  as  a  manifesta- 
tion of  him  rather  than  a  product  of 
human  ingenuity  and  pretension.  All 
this  ^undisturbed  by  the  calculations 
and  ambitions  of  our  day-lit  life. 

It  was  thus  ''  to  overcome  the 
world,"  or  at  least  to  assist  us  in  it, 
that  the  Mosaic  law  set  apart  one  day 
in  seven  for  our  spiritual  refection, 
and  enjoined  upon  us  to  do  no  'ynan7ier 
of  work.  It  was  for  the  like  purpose 
we  were  directed  when  we  pray  to 
enter  into  our  inner  chamber  and  shut 
our  door,  that  we  be  not  distracted  by 
what  the  world  may  think  or  say  or 
be  to  us  while  we  commune  with  our 
Father  in  heaven.  May  we  not — 
do  we  not  have  a  more  perfect  seclu- 


42  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

sion  from  the  world  in  our  sleep,  to 
help  us  to  such  a  direct,  prolonged, 
and  undisturbed  communion,  than  is 
possible  at  any  other  time?  Is  i-t  not 
necessary  for  all  of  us,  or  at  least  for 
much  the  larger  proportion  of  the 
world  who  otherwise  might  never  seek 
this  closer  communion  with  God,  to  be 
subjected  to  the  operation  of  a  law 
which  for  a  portion  of  every  day 
reduces  them  to  a  condition  in  which 
nothing  operates  to  prevent  their  giv- 
ing their  attention  to  the  divine 
messengers  that  are  continually  strug- 
gling for  an  opportunity  to  be  heard  ? 
This  idea  appears  to  have  been  the 
happy  inspiration  of  one  of  our  as  yet 
unpublished  poets  in  the  following- 
sonnet  : 

If  tliou  wouldst  look  life's  problem  in  the  face, 
And  comprehend  her  mystic  countenance, 
Seek,  in  the  early  morn  ere  yet  the  grace 
Of  dewdrops  have  been  withered  by  the  sun, 


The  Sabbath  of  the  Kight  43 

Some  solitary  glen  or  truant  brook, 

And  scan,  freed  from  results  of  yesterday, 

The  ill-deciphered  pages  of  life's  book  : 

And  ere  to-day's  vicissitudes  have  cast 

Their  shadows  o'er  the  judgment,  thou  shall  see 

Thy  blessings  vy^ill  confront  thee  then,  and  ask 

A  recognizing  smile.     The  world  shall  seem 

A  higher  fact, — the  heart  of  man  more  wise, 

The  very  universe  on  larger  plan, — 

The  glamour  of  day-dawn  within  thine  eyes. 

The  most  considerable  and  impos- 
ing repository  of  facts  from  which  we 
are  authorized  to  infer  anything  of 
what  may  be  going  on  in  us  while  we 
sleep,  may  be  found  where,  ordinarily, 
one  would  be  least  likely  to  look  for 
it,  and,  if  sleep  be,  as  most  people 
suppose,  simply  an  interruption  of 
activities  for  the  purpose  of  repose 
and  refreshment,  where  it  would  be 
most  out  of  place.  That  is,  in  the 
sacred  Scriptures.  If  these  writings 
are  what  they  purport  to  be,  an  in- 
spired guide  to  assist  man  in  leading 
a  holy   life,  it  is  impossible  to  recon- 


44  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

cile  the  prominence  they  give  to  the 
phenomena  of  sleep  with  the  idea  of 
its  being  merely  a  mode  of  rest  from 
fatio^ue. 

Even  a  hasty  reference  to  its  pages 
will  satisfy  the  reader  that  sleep  is 
never  referred  to  in  the  Bible  except 
with  reference  to  some  of  the  most 
vital  processes  of  spiritual  growth  or 
degeneration.  In  reading  the  illustra- 
tions of  this  statement,  to  some  of 
which  I  will  now  refer,  the  reader  is 
requested  to  note  the  incalculably 
important  consequences  of  which,  in 
each  case,  sleep  is  uniformly  the 
prelude. 

The  very  first  allusion  to  sleep  in 
the  Bible  associates  it  with  an  event 
second  in  importance,  perhaps,  to  no 
other  in  the  history  of  our  race : 

''  And  the  Lord  God  caused  a  deep 
/       sleep    to    fall    upon   the  man,   and   he 


igIiL''^IBM«l«^jii«>l 


Altruism  Taught  in  Sleep  45 

slept ;  and  he  took  one  of  his  ribs,  and 
he  closed  up  the  flesh  instead  thereof : 
and  the  rib,  which  the  Lord  God  had 
taken  from  the  man,  made  he  a  woman, 
and  brought  her  unto  the  man.  And 
the  man  said,  This  is  now  bone  of  my 
bones,  and  flesh  of  my  flesh  :  she  shall 
be  called  Woman,  because  she  was 
taken  out  of  man.  Therefore  shall 
a  man  leave  his  father  a7id  his  mother^ 
and  shall  cleave  ttnto  his  wife:  and 
they  shall  be  one  fleshy  * 

Thus  it  was  during  his  sleep  that 
man  was  first  qualified  to  love  some- 
thing outside  of  himself  that  our  race 
received  its  first  lesson  in  altruism  ; 
experienced  its  first  triumph  over  the 
tyranny  of  its  selfhood,  and  that  the 
institution  of  matrimony  was  estab- 
lished. Eve  is  man's  first  unselfish 
love — his  first  genuine  charity. 

*  Genesis  ii.  21. 


46  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

Whether  regarded  as  literal  or  sym- 
bolical the  passage  quoted  is  no  less 
impressive  and  significant. 

It  was  when  the  sun  was  going 
down  and  a  deep  sleep  fell  upon 
Abram,  that  the  Lord  made  him  the 
founder  of  nations ;  commissioned  him 
to  teach  to  a  pagan  world  the  unity  of 
the  Godhead  and  the  errors  of  poly- 
theism.* 

When  Jacob  was  sent  to  his  grand- 
father to  seek  a  wife  among  the 
daughters  of  his  uncle  Laban,  on  his 
journey  "he  lighted  upon  a  certain 
place,  and  tarried  there  all  night,  be- 
cause the  sun  was  set ;  and  he  took  one 
of  the  stones  of  the  place,  and  put  it 
under  his  head,  and  lay  down  in  that 
place  to  sleep.  And  he  dreamed,  and 
behold  a  ladder  set  up  on  the  earth, 
and  the  top  of  it  reached  to  heaven  : 

*  Genesis  xv.  12. 


Jacob's  Ladder  47 

and  behold  the  ancrels  of  God  ascend- 
ing  and  descending  on  it.  And,  behold, 
the  Lord  stood  above  it,  and  said,  I 
am  the  Lord,  the  God  of  Abraham 
thy  father  and  the  God  of  Isaac  :  the 
land  whereon  thou  liest,  to  thee  will  I 
give  it,  and  to  thy  seed ;  and  thy  seed 
shall  be  as  the  dust  of  the  earth,  and 
thou  shalt  spread  abroad  to  the  west, 
and  to  the  east,  and  to  the  north,  and 
to  the  south  :  and  in  thee  and  in  thy 
seed  shall  all  the  families  of  the  earth 
be  blessed.  And,  behold,  I  am  with 
thee,  and  will  keep  thee  whithersoever 
thou  goest,  and  will  bring  thee  again 
into  this  land ;  for  I  will  not  leave 
thee,  until  I  have  done  that  which  I 
have  spoken  to  thee  of. 

"  And  Jacob  awaked  out  of  his  sleep, 
and  he  said.  Surely  the  Lord  is  in  this 
place ;  and  I  knew  it  not.  And  he 
was  afraid,  and  said,  How  dreadful  is 


48  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

this  place !  This  is  none  other  but 
the  house  of  God,  and  this  is  the  gate 
of  heaven. 

**  And  Jacob  rose  up  early  In  the 
morning,  and  took  the  stone  that  he 
had  put  under  his  head,  and  set  it  up 
for  a  pillar,  and  poured  oil  upon  the 
top  of  it.  And  he  called  the  name  of 
that  place  Beth-el :  .  .  .  And  Jacob 
vowed  a  vow,  saying,  If  God  will  be 
with  me,  and  will  keep  me  In  this  way 
that  I  go,  and  will  give  me  bread  to  eat, 
and  raiment  to  put  on,  so  that  I  come 
again  to  my  father's  house  In  peace, 
then  shall  the  Lord  be  my  God,  and 
this  stone,  which  I  have  set  up  for  a 
pillar,  shall  be  God's  house :  and  of  all 
that  thou  shalt  give  me  I  will  surely 
give  the  tenth  unto  thee."  * 

One  of  the  most  pathetic  and  dra- 
matic stories  in  all  literature  is  that  of 

*  Genesis  xxviii.  11-22. 


Joseph's  Dreams  49 

Jacob's  son,  Joseph,  and  his  breth- 
ren, the  machinery  of  which  consists 
mainly  of  dreams.  It  was  the  recital 
of  one  of  his  dreams  that  provoked 
his  brethren  to  sell  him  into  Egypt. 
While  in  prison  there,  in  consequence 
of  a  malicious  accusation  of  his 
master's  wife,  he  interprets  correctly 
the  dreams  of  the  kinor's  chief  butler 
and  chief  baker,  who  were  his  fellow- 
prisoners.  The  fame  of  this  achiev- 
ment  spread  through  the  land,  and 
when  Pharaoh,  the  king,  was  perplexed 
by  a  dream,  he  sent  for  Joseph,  and 
was  so  impressed  with  his  skill  in 
interpreting  it  that  he  at  once  gave 
him  power  second  only  to  his  own  in 
the  kingdom,  made  him  lord  of  all  his 
house,  and  ruler  over  all  the  land  of 
Egypt.  It  was  thus  through  dreams 
that  he  was  enabled  to  save  his  breth- 
ren ''  alive  by  a  great  deliverance,"  to 

4 


50  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

prepare  the  way  for  the  escape  of  the 
children  of  Israel  from  the  bondage 
of  spiritual  darkness  in  Egypt,  to 
wander  forty  years  in  the  wilderness 
that  they  might  be  fitted  for  a  home  in 
a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey, 
•^  and  symbolize  for  all  future  time  the 

several  stages  of  the  progress  of  man's 
spiritual  regeneration. 

Samuel  was  laid  down  to  sleep  in 
the  temple  of  the  Lord  where  the  ark 
of  God  was  when  the  Lord  called 
him  by  name. 

''  Now  Samuel  did  not  yet  know 
the  Lord,  neither  was  the  word  of  the 
Lord  yet  revealed  unto  him."  The 
Lord  called  him  three  times  before  he 
knew  who  it  was  that  called,  and  then 
he  answered,  ''Speak,  for  thy  servant 
heareth.  And  the  Lord  said  to 
Samuel,  Behold,  I  will  do  a  thing  in 
Israel,  at  which  both  the  ears  of  every 


Samuel,  Saul,  and  David  51 

one  that  heareth  it  shall  tingle."  At  the 
close  of  the  Lord's  statement  of  what 
he  proposed  to  do,  it  is  recorded  that 
"  Samuel  grew,  and  the  Lord  was  with 
him,  and  did  let  none  of  his  words  fall 
to  the  ground."  * 

*'  And  all  Israel  from  Dan  to  Beer- 
sheba  knew  that  Samuel  was  estab- 
lished to  be  a  prophet  of  the  Lord."f 

Saul  was  asleep  In  his  camp  when 
Abishai  said  to  David,  whom  Saul  was 
pursuing,  *'  God  hath  delivered  up 
thine  enemy  into  thine  hand  this  day: 
now  therefore  let  me  smite  him,  I  pray 
thee,  with  the  spear  to  the  earth 
at  one  stroke,  and  I  will  not  smite  him 
the  second  time."  David  replied,  "  The 
Lord  forbid  that  I  should  put  forth 
mine  hand  against  the  Lord's  anointed." 

When  Saul  awoke  on  hearing  the 
voice  of  David  from  a  neighboring  hill, 

*  I  Samuel  iii.  19.  f  lb.,  verse  20. 


52  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

whither  he  had  taken  refuge,  reproach- 
ing Abner  for  not  having  kept  better 
watch  over  the  Lord's  anointed,  he 
said :  ''  I  have  sinned :  return,  my  son 
David  :  for  I  will  no  more  do  thee  harm, 
because  my  life  was  precious  in  thine 
eyes  this  day:  behold,  I  have  played  the 
fool,  and  have  erred  exceedingly.  .  . 
Blessed  be  thou,  my  son  David  :  thou 
shalt  both  do  mightily,  and  shalt  surely 
prevail."  * 

When  Elijah  was  a  refugee  from 
the  persecutions  of  Jezebel,  and,  faint 
with  hunger,  had  fallen  asleep,  an 
angel  touched  him  and  told  him  "  to 
arise  and  eat."  f 

To  King  Solomon  is  attributed  the 
memorable  127th  Psalm,  in  which 
occur  the   following  lines  : 

Except  the  Lord  build  the  house 
They  labor  in  vain  that  build  it : 
Except  the  Lord  keep  the  city, 

*  I  Samuel  xxvi.  12.  ji  Kings  xix.  5. 


The  Price  of  "Sweet  Sleep"  53 

The  watchman  waketh  but  in  vain. 

It  is  vain  for  you  that  ye  rise  up  early,  and  so  late  take 

rest, 
And  eat  the  bread  of  toil : 
For  so  he  give  th  ten  to  his  beloved  sleep. 

Among"  the  proverbs  of  the  same 
king,  the  most  famous  of  all  earthly 
kings  for  his  wisdom,  '*  sweet  sleep  "  is 
held  forth  as  one  of  the  privileges  of 
him  who  despiseth  not  "the  chasten - 
ings  of  the  Lord"  nor  is  ''weary  of 
his  reproof."  * 

While  Daniel  and  his  three  com- 
rades were  living  at  the  court  of 
Nebuchadnezzar,  "God  gave  them 
knowledge  and  skill  in  all  learning 
and  wisdom  :  and  Daniel  had  under- 
standing  in  all  visions   and   dreams." 

When  two  years  later  Nebuchadnez- 
zar had  a  dream  which  he  had  for- 
gotten, he  issued  a  decree  for  the 
slaughter  of  all  his  wise  men  and  magi- 
cians, because   they   could    not    make 

*  Proverbs  iii.  ii. 


y 


54  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

known  to  him  the  dream  and  its  inter- 
pretation. Daniel  saved  their  lives 
and  his  own  by  revealing  to  the  king 
''the  visions  of  his  head  upon  his 
bed,"  and  their  interpretation.  One 
of  the  results  of  this  dream  was  that 
Nebuchadnezzar  confessed  to  Daniel 
that  his  God  was  the  God  of  gods  and 
the  Lord  of  kings,  and  he  made  Daniel 
himself  to  rule  over  the  whole  province 
of  Babylon  and  to  be  chief  Governor 
over  all  the  wise  men  of  Babylon.* 

Nebuchadnezzar  in  due  time  had 
another  dream,  which  Daniel  was  called 
upon  to  interpret.  It  was  of  painful 
import.  The  king  was  to  be  driven 
from  men ;  his  dwelling  was  to  be 
with  the  beasts  of  the  field  ;  he  was  to 
be  made  to  eat  grass  as  oxen  and  to  be 
wet  with  the  dew  of  heaven,  and  seven 
times   were  to  pass  over  him  until  he 

*  Daniel  ii.  47. 


Nebuchadnezzar's  Dream  55 

should  know  "  the  Most  High  ruleth 
in  the  kingdom  of  men  and  giveth  it 
to  whomsoever  he  will."  *'At  the 
end  of  the  days,"  said  Nebuchad- 
nezzar in  his  official  proclamation  of 
this  experience,  "  I  lifted  up  mine 
eyes  unto  heaven,  and  ...  at  the 
same  time  mine  understanding  re- 
turned unto  me  ;  and  for  the  glory  of 
my  kingdom,  my  majesty  and  bright- 
ness returned  unto  me ;  .  .  .  and  I 
was  established  in  my  kingdom,  and 
excellent  greatness  was  added  unto 
me.  Now  I  Nebuchadnezzar  praise 
and  extol  and  honor  the  King  of 
heaven  ;  for  all  his  works  are  truth,  and 
his  ways  judgment :  and  those  that 
walk  in  pride  he  is  able  to  abase."  * 

The  prophet  Joel,  speaking  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord  God,  says  :  ''  It 
shall   come   to    pass  afterward,  that  I 

*Daniel  iv.  5. 


56  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

will  pour  out  my  spirit  upon  all  flesh ; 
and  your  sons  and  your  daughters  shall 
prophesy,  your  old  men  shall  dream 
dreams,  your  young  men  shall  see 
visions :  and  also  upon  the  servants 
and  upon  the  handmaids  in  those  days 
will  I  pour  out  my  spirit."  * 

The  birth  of  the  Messiah  was  fore- 
told to  Joseph  while  sleeping.  '*  An 
angel  of  the  Lord  appeared  unto  him 
in  a  dream,  saying,  Joseph,  thou  son 
of  David,  fear  not  to  take  unto  thee 
Mary  thy  wife :  for  that  which  is  con- 
ceived in  her  is  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
she  shall  bring  forth  a  son  ;  and  thou 
shalt  call  his  name  Jesus  ;  for  it  is  he 
that  shall  save  his  people  from  their 
sins.  .  .  And  Joseph  arose  from  his 
sleep  and  did  as  the  Angel  of  the 
Lord    commanded."  f 

The  Annunciation  was  made  by  an 

*  Joel  ii.  28.  t  Matthew  i.  20. 


Mary  and  Joseph  57 

angel  directly  to  Mary,  and  not  in  her 
sleep,  that  she  was  to  be  the  mother  of 
our  Saviour.  The  Magnificat  which 
she  pronounced  when  she  visited 
Elizabeth,  immediately  after  the  con- 
ception, shows  how  conscious  she  was 
of  the  day  star  that  had  risen  In  her 
heart.  Joseph,  on  the  other  hand,  was 
minded  to  put  her  away  privily  because 
he  had  no  comprehension  of  the  signif- 
icance and  import  of  this  new  birth. 
An  angel,  therefore,  was  sent  to  him 
privily  in  his  sleep  *'  to  tell  him  not  to 
fear  to  take  Mary  for  his  wife."  Mary 
was  spiritually  prepared  for  this  new 
birth.  Joseph  was  not.  He  judged 
as  the  world  judged  ;  as  the  apostles 
were  judged  by  their  hearers,  and  as 
Paul  was  judged  by  Festus.  He  had 
to  be  taught  in  his  sleep  what  he 
would  never  have  received  while  awake 
and    under    worldly    influences.     The 


58  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

world  may  be  presumed  to  have  had 
no  such  hold,  then,  upon  Mary. 

The  wise  men  who  were  sent  by 
Herod  to  Bethlehem  to  search  out 
carefully  the  young  child,  Jesus,  and 
when  found,  report  the  place  to  him, 
^  were  warned  171  a  dream  that  they 
should  not  return  to  Herod,  so  they 
departed  into  their  own  country 
another  way. 

After  the  death  of  Herod  an  angel 
of  the  Lord  appeared  again  in  a  dream 
to  Joseph  in  Egypt,  saying  :  "■  Arise  and 
take  the  young  child  and  his  mother, 
and  go  into  the  land  of  Israel:  for  they 
are  dead  that  sought  the  young  child's 
life."  Hearing,  however,  that  Herod's 
son  was  reigning  over  Judea,  he  feared 
to  go  thither,  and  in  consequence  of 
'^  being  warned  of  God  i^i  a  dream,  he 
withdrew  into  the  parts  of  Galilee,  to  a 
city  called  Nazareth. 


The  Disciples  Illuminated  59 

When  Jesus  took  with  him  Peter 
and  James  and  John  and  went  up  into 
the  mountain  to  pray,  the  fashion  of 
his  countenance  was  altered  and  his 
raiment  became  white  and  dazzHng. 
There  talked  with  him  two  men,  Moses 
and  Elias,  who  appeared  in  glory. 

Peter,  and  they  that  were  with  him, 
were  heavy  with  sleep,  but  when  they 
were  fully  awake  they  saw  His  glory, 
Peter  then  said  :  '*  Master,  it  is  good  for 
us  to  be  here  :  and  let  us  make  three 
tabernacles ;  one  for  thee,  and  one  for 
Moses,  and  one  for  Elijah,  not  know- 
ing what  he  said. 

''And  while  he  said  these  things, 
there  came  a  cloud,  and  overshadowed 
them :  .  .  .  and  a  voice  came  out  of 
the  cloud,  saying,  This  is  my  Son,  my 
chosen  :  hear  ye  him.  And  when  the 
voice  came,  Jesus  was  found  alone."  * 

Till  then  Jesus,   Moses,  and  Elijah, 

*  Luke  ix.  33. 


6o  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

in  Peter's  mind,  were  of  equal  dignity, 
and  equally  entitled  to  tabernacles. 
After  receiving  the  message  from  the 
clouds  they  saw  no  one  but  Jesus. 

The  daughter  of  Jairuswas  given  up 
for  dead  by  her  family.  ''  Why  make 
ye  a  tumult,  and  weep?"  said  Jesus, 
when  he  arrived,  in  response  to  a 
message  from  the  father,  "  the  child  is 
not  dead,  but  sleepeth.  And  they 
laughed  him  to  scorn.  But  he,  having 
put  them  all  forth,  taketh  the  father  of 
the  child  and  her  mother  and  them 
that  were  with  him,  and  goeth  in  where 
the  child  was.  And  taking  the  child 
by  the  hand,  he  saith  unto  her,  Talitha 
cumi ;  which  is,  being  interpreted, 
Damsel,  I  say  unto  thee.  Arise.  And 
straightway  the  damsel  rose  up,  and 
walked,  for  she  was  twelve  years  old."  * 

*  Mark  v.  39  ;  Acts  xii.  6  ;  see  also  Canticles  v. 
2;  Hosea  xii.  10;  Jeremiah  xxxi.  26;  John  xi.  11; 
Acts  ix.  10. 


Elihu  Rebukes  Job  6i 

While  Pilate  was  sitting  in  judgment 
upon  the  accusations  brought  against 
Jesus,  ''  his  wife  sent  unto  him,  saying,  y 
Have  thou  nothing  to  do  with  that 
righteous  man  :  for  I  have  suffered 
many  things  this  day  in  a  dream 
because  of  him."  * 

The  Apostle  Peter  was  sleeping 
between  two  soldiers  and  bound  with 
two  chains,  when  "■  an  angel  of  the 
Lord  stood  by  him,  and  a  light  shined 
in  the  cell :  and  he  smote  Peter  on  the 
side,  and  awoke  him,  saying,  Rise  up 
quickly.  And  his  chains  fell  off  from 
his  hands." 

But  the  most  definite  and  explicit 
statement  of  what  doubtless  deserves 
to  be  regarded  as  the  most  important 
— the  vital — purposes  of  sleep  that  is 
given  in  the  Bible,  will  be  found  in 
the    rebuke    administered   to   Job   by 

*  Matthew  xxvii.  19. 


62  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

Elihu,  the  youngest  of  his  comforters, 
for  presuming  to  question  the  justice 
of  the  trials  he  was  enduring. 

"  Surely,"  said  Elihu,  "  thou  hast 
spoken  in  my  hearing,  and  I  have 
heard  the  voice  of  thy  words,  saying, 
I  am  clean,  without  transgression ;  I 
am  innocent,  neither  is  there  iniquity 
in  me  :  behold,  he  findeth  occasions 
against  me,  he  counteth  me  for  his 
enemy ;  he  putteth  my  feet  in  the 
stocks,  he  marketh  all  my  paths.  Be- 
hold, I  will  answer  thee,  in  this  thou  art 
not  just  ;  for  God  is  greater  than  man. 
Why  dost  thou  strive  against  him  ? 
For  he  giveth  not  account  of  any  of 
his  matters.  For  God  speaketh  once, 
yea  twice,  though  man  regardeth  it 
not.  In  a  dream,  in  a  vision  of  the 
night,  when  deep  sleep  falleth  upon 
men,  in  slumberings  upon  the  bed," 
said  Elihu  to  Job,  "  then  he  openeth 


Elihu's  Rebuke  of  Job  63 

THE    EARS  OF    MEN,  AND    SEALETH    THEIR  ^ 

INSTRUCTION,  THAT  HE  MAY  WITH- 
DRAW MAN  FROM  HIS  PURPOSE  AND 
HIDE  PRIDE  FROM  MAN  ;  HE  KEEPETH 
BACK  HIS  SOUL  FROM  THE  PIT,  AND 
HIS  LIFE  FROM  PERISHING  BY  THE 
SWORD."  * 

Have  we  not  here  a  plain  and 
unequivocal  statement, 

First.  That  the  processes  of  spirit- 
ual growth  and  development  are  not 
only  not  interrupted,  but  are  more 
than  ordinarily  active  during  sleep  ? 

Second.  That  while  in  that  state 
man  is  withdrawn  from  his  own  pur- 
poses for  much  higher  purposes  than 
animate  him  during  his  waking  hours  ? 
and 

Third.  That  it  is  while  sleeping  that 
God  openeth  the  ears  of  men  and 
sealeth   their   instruction  ? 

*  Job  xxxiii.  8-18. 


64  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

How  could  the  purposes  of  sleep  be 
more  explicitly  stated,  assuming  the 
competence  of  the  authority  stating 
them  ?  How  could  their  importance 
be  made  more  impressive? 

What  events  are  recorded  in  the 
whole  range  of  secular  history,  I  will 
not  say  of  graver,  but  of  equal,  import 
to  any  one  of  these  to  which  sleep  is 
treated  as  a  necessary,  indeed,  a  pre- 
paratory incident  ? 

There  are  some  who  affect  to  make 
light  of  the  Bible  story.  Conceding 
for  a  moment  that  it  is  a  work  of 
the  imagination,  a  tradition,  a  myth, 
why  is  the  machinery  of  sleep  so  con- 
stantly introduced  on  occasions  of  such 
incomparable  importance  ?  Why,  too, 
were  not  these  several  communications, 
or  revelations,  made  directly  to  the 
imaginary  parties  interested,  in  their 
waking  hours  ?     Why  were  the  hours 


Mohammed  among  Prophets  65 

of  sleep  chosen,  when  only  the  Divinity 
could  know  whether  the  communica- 
tions were  received  and  whether  the 
effect  intended  was  to  be  realized? 

Regarded  merely  as  a  work  of  liter- 
ary art,  the  Bible  has  scarcely  less 
importance  than  is  claimed  for  it  by 
Bible  Christians,  in  proving  sleep  to 
have  been  recognized  through  all  the 
ages  as  a  prime  factor  and  an  indis- 
pensable condition  to  man's  spiritual 
evolution. 

Tradition  thus  accounts  for  Moham- 
med's being  among  the  prophets : 
While  indulging  in  spiritual  medita- 
tions and  repeating  pious  exercises 
on  Mount  Hira  in  the  month  of 
Ramedan,  the  Angel  Gabriel  came  to 
him  by  night,  as  he  was  sleeping,  held 
a  silken  scroll  before  him  and  required 
him,  though  not  knowing  how  to  read, 
to  recite  what  was  written  on  the 
5 


v/ 


66  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

scroll.  The  words  thus  communicated 
remained  graven  on  his  memory,  and 
ran  as  follows  : 

"Read!  In  the  name  of  the  Lord 
who  created  man  from  a  drop.  Read  ! 
For  the  Lord  is  the  Most  High  who 
hath  taught  by  the  pen,  hath  taught  to 
man  what  he  knew  not.  Nay  truly, 
man  walketh  in  delusion  when  he 
deems  that  he  suffices  for  himself ;  to 
thy  Lord  they  must  all  return." 

This  brief  announcement  of  the 
Angel  Gabriel  to  Mohammed  in  his 
sleep,  deserves  to  be  regarded  as  the 
corner-stone  of  the  religion  of  the 
most  numerous  of  the  monotheistic 
sects   in  the   world   to  this   day. 


CHAPTER  V 

Privation  of  Sleep — Its  Effects — How  Availed  of  by  Tous- 
saint  L'Ouverture  in  Defence  of  the  Independence  of 
Hayti — Causes  the  Death  of  the  Last  King  of  Mace- 
donia— Lunacy — Difference  in  Sleeping  Habit  between 
Domestic  and  Predatory  Animals — Low  Average  of 
Longevity  among  Savages  Explained — Habits  of 
Venomous  and  Non-venomous  Serpents  Contrasted — 
Prominence  of  Sleep  in  the  Machinery  of  Shakespeare's 
Plays — Tendency  to  Sleep  in  Houses  of  Worship 
Explained — Dr.  Wilkinson — External  and  Internal 
Respiration 

Thus  far  we  have  studied  the  func- 
tion of  sleep  from  Its  effects,  and  some 
of  its  uses.  Now  let  us  learn  what 
we  can  of  the  effect  of  its  privation. 
Patients  In  a  high  fever  get  little 
sleep.  In  time,  if  the  fever  continues, 
they  are  apt  to  become  delirious.  If 
they  recover  It  Is  almost  uniformly 
after  an  unusually  prolonged  and  quiet 
sleep.  In  their  fever  and  delirium 
their   thought  and  speech  are  almost 


68  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

invariably  of  the  world  in  which  they 
live,  its  interests  and  concerns.  If  of 
the  other  life  it  is  usually  a  selfish 
dread  of  eternal  torment.  Hahne- 
mann, the  founder  of  the  homoeopathic 
school  of  medicine,  insisted  that  a 
patient  under  treatment  should  never 
be  awakened  even  to  take  medicine. 
In  the  judgment  of  intelligent  physi- 
cians there  is  no  symptom  they  wel- 
come so  cordially  in  a  patient  as  a 
natural  sleep,  and  no  change  from  which 
they  expect  more  favorable  results. 

The  effect  of  being  awakened  from 
a  sound  sleep  is  always  unpleasant. 
It  is  apt  to  make  one  unsocial  and 
irritable.  Any  such  abrupt  recall  to 
worldly  cares  induces  a  feeling  of  dis- 
content, such  as  usually  accompanies 
all  unwelcome  changes  of  condition  or 
unpleasant  interruptions.  It  is  quite 
customary  in  all  parts  of  the  world  for 


Morning  Sleep  has  Gold  in  Its  Mouth    69 

those   who   can    thus    indulge    them- 
selves, to  breakfast  in  bed  and  linger 
there,  as  Charles   Lamb  expressed  it, 
**to  digest  their   dreams,"   or  to  read 
or  pursue  any  other  congenial  employ- 
ment for  some  hours  after  waking.     I 
know  a  very  accomplished   lady — the 
mistress  of  a  noble  ancestral  country 
home — who     never     sees     her     farm 
people  or  house  servants   till   several 
hours  after  waking.     She  insists  that 
the  abrupt  resumption  of  the  cares  of 
every-day   life,    upon   awaking   in    the 
morning,  took  from  her  so  much  vital- 
ity that  it  unfitted  her  for  any  thing 
else  the  rest  of  the  day. 

It  is  not  without  significance  that 
grown  people  pretty  universally  prefer 
to  be  left  alone  for  some  time  after 
waking,  while  we  rarely  find  any  who 
have  been  immersed  in  worldly  cares 
promptly  on  waking,  whose  friends  are 


70  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

not  content  to  leave  them  alone.  It 
is  the  struggle  we  experience  in  ex- 
changing abruptly  the  society  we  have 
left  in  the  land  of  dreams  for  that 
which  we  meet  in  the  forum  or  on 
the  exchange,  that  has  brought  some 
stimulating  beverages,  such  as  coffee 
or  tea  or  beer,  into  such  general  use 
throughout  the  world  early  in  the  day. 
On  waking,  and  before  we  experience 
any  appetite  for  food,  we  are  prone 
to  welcome  an  exhilarant  of  some  sort 
to  overcome  our  reluctance  to  return  to 
the  disciplinary  life  into  which  we  were 
born  to  be  trained.  The  late  Chief 
Justice  Taney,  I  have  been  told,  habitu- 
ally smoked  a  pipe  before  his  breakfast. 
Most  of  the  insanity  in  the  world 
results  from  habits  the  indulgence 
of    which    is    unfavorable    to   sleep. "^ 

*  The  increase  of  lunacy  in  England  and  Wales  be- 
tween 1885  and   1893  has  been  recently  stated  by  the 


Lunacy  7^ 

The  length  of  time  a  man  can  pre- 
serve his  mental  faculties  without 
sleep  varies  more  or  less  with  the 
constitution,  but  the  inevitable  result 
is  delirium  before  many  days.  The 
wise  physician  will  spare  no  effort 
to  compose  his  maniacal  patient  to 
slumber.  The  Chinese  punish  a  cer- 
tain class  of  flagrant  crimes  by 
constantly     teasing     the     criminal    to 

Hon.  Mr.  Hobhouse  at  26  per  cent.  The  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer  has  admitted  that  it  was  over  15.5 
per  cent.  The  latest  annual  return,  1893-94,  shows 
an  increase  even  on  that  average  of  2.5  per  cent,  for 
England,  and  2.3  per  cent,  for  Wales.  From  Ireland 
we  have  a  still  more  deplorable  report.  The  increase, 
for  the  eight  years  above  named  was  actually  21.8 
per  cent.,  and  the  rate  of  progress  shown  in  the  latest 
return  was  not  far  from  double  the  average  5.7  per 
cent.  The  Commissioners  of  Lunacy  name  the  im- 
moderate use  of  tea  as  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  the 
increase.  Had  they  named  the  loss  of  wholesome 
sleep,  and  the  habits  to  which  such  loss  was  due, 
among  which  the  immoderate  use  of  tea,  coffee, 
narcotics,  and  other  drugs  are  to  be  included,  their 
diagnosis  would  have  been  more  scientific  and  com- 
prehensive. 


72  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

prevent  his  sleeping,  and  It  is  among 
the  punishments  regarded  by  them 
with  most  horror.  Historians  report 
that  Perseus,  the  last  king  of  ancient 
Macedonia,  while  a  prisoner  of  the 
Romans,  was  "done  to  death  "  in  this 
way  by  his  guards.  They  would 
not  permit  him  to  sleep. 

When  the  first  Napoleon  attempted 
the  conquest  of  Hayti,  Toussaint 
L'Ouverture,  who  had  become  com- 
mander-in-chief of  the  Haytians,  could 
not  venture  a  pitched  battle  with 
the  battalions  of  Napoleonic  veterans, 
but  had  recourse  to  a  less  risky 
though  more  effective  method  of  war- 
fare. As  soon  as  the  French  troops 
got  to  sleep  at  night,  Toussaint 
made  a  feint  of  attacking  them,  thus 
getting  them  all  up  and  under  arms. 
This  was  repeated  so  frequently  as 
to    effectually    prevent    their    getting 


Toussaint  L'Ouverture  73 

any  rest,  and  in  a  few  weeks  an 
army  of  thirty  thousand  veterans, 
without  a  single  engagement  in  the 
field,  was  reduced  to  about  five 
thousand  effectives,  through  disease 
induced  mainly,  if  not  entirely,  by 
want  of  sleep.  It  is  reported  that 
the  policy  of  the  Haytian  patriot  is 
now  being  prosecuted  by  the  insur- 
gents in  Cuba.  Evidently  something 
goes  on  during  sleep  which  is  a  pre- 
ventative as  well  as  an  antidote  to 
mania,  and  the  two  facts  which  we 
know  and  can  safely  reason  from,  are  : 

First.  The  maniac  cannot  separate 
himself  from  his  environment  in  this 
world,  and 

Second.  The  only  chance  of  effect- 
ing this  separation  is  through  sleep. 

The  logical  inference  is  that  some 
change  is  wrought  in  the  hours  of 
repose  that  could  not  be  wrought  until 


74  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

the  patient  was  liberated  from  the 
bondage  of  his  worldly  environment, 
and  made  accessible  to  influences  of 
some  kind  which  could  not  approach 
him  while  under  such  bondage,  and 
those  influences  are  soothing,  civilizing, 
harmonizing,  fraternizing,  elevating. 

The  predatory  animals,  as  a  rule, 
seek  their  prey  at  night  and  their, 
repose  by  day.  They  differ  in  this 
respect  from  all  tamed  or  domesticated 
animals.  It  is  also  to  be  observed 
that  they  subsist  chiefly  upon  the  food 
of  other  animals,  and  are,  therefore, 
ever  at  war  with  the  whole  animal 
kingdom,  not  always  sparing  their  own 
progeny.  Like  the  dangerous  classes  of 
human  society,  they  take  advantage  of 
the  darkness  to  better  conceal  their  pur- 
poses, and  for  the  greater  chance  of  find- 
ing their  prey  asleep  or  off  its  guard. 

To  domesticate  or  tame  a  wild  ani- 


Predatory  Creation  75 

mal,  it  is  necessary  to  win  its  confi- 
dence by  protecting  it  from  its  preda- 
tory fellows,  and  accustoming  it  to 
sleep  without  fear.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  domesticated  animal  soon 
becomes  wild  and  dangerous  if  its 
sleep  is  disturbed ;  cows  fall  off  in 
their  yield  of  milk  ;  hens  will  not  lay  ; 
sheep  will  not  fatten. 

Wild  beasts  are  always  lean,  or 
rather  never  fat,  partly,  no  doubt,  if  not 
entirely,  because  of  their  precarious 
livelihood,  which  compels  them  to  be 
constantly  on  the  alert  by  night  as  well 
as  by  day. 

The  savage  tribes,  who  for  the  most 
part  lead  predatory  lives,  are  so  much 
exposed  to  surprises  that  they  rarely 
get  regular  or  sufficient  sleep,  and  take 
their  rest  as  they  take  their  food,  when 
they  can  get  it,  but  without  periodicity 
or  regularity.     This  goes  far  to  explain 


76  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

the  fact  that  their  average  longevity  is 
much  less  than  that  of  civilized  peo- 
ples. As  they  emerge  from  the  savage 
state  they  begin  to  organize  into  so- 
cieties for  mutual  protection,  to  share 
each  others'  burdens,  and  to  secure 
social  privileges,  of  which  regular  and 
abundant  sleep  is  one  to  which  all  the 
others  are  secondary.  That  is  the 
"  pillar  of  fire  by  night  "  which  guides 
them  from  Egypt  to  Canaan,  from  a 
life  of  barbaric  selfishness  toward  a 
higher  life  of  mutual  forbearance  and 
fraternity.  The  policeman's  rattle  is 
the  authentic  symbol  of  civilization, 
for  upon  the  forces  it  rallies  to  the 
defence  of  order,  we  depend  for  our 
undisturbed  repose  during  the  hours 
when  darkness  offers  a  partial  immu- 
nity to  crime. 

The    venomous  snake,  which  is   the 
symbol  of   all  which  is  most  detested 


How  Serpents  Sleep  77 

and  detestable  in  the  animal  kingdom, 
never   closes  its  eyes.     They  are  cov- 
ered with  a  sort  of  scale,  transparent, 
like  glass,  which  allows  perfect  vision, 
and   yet  is   strong  enough  to  protect 
the   eyes  from  the  ordinary  accidents 
of   snake   life.       While   warm-blooded 
animals  shut  their  eyelids  to  exclude 
the  light   when    they   sleep,   and    the 
pupils     relax    or     open,  in    the    ser- 
pent this  action  is  reversed,  the  pupil 
contracts   like  a  cat's  in  the  sunlight. 
It  is  a  curiously  suggestive  and,  I   be- 
lieve, a  well-authenticated  fact,  that  the 
most    deadly   serpents,    the    ViperidcB 
and  BoidcE,    are    cat-eyed,    and    night 
prowlers.      Except  when  thirsty,  they 
will  rarely  be  seen  moving  about  in  the 
daytime.     The  Colubrzdcs,  or  common, 
harmless   snakes,  on   the   other  hand, 
have  round  pupils,  sleep  at  night,  and 
are  active  chiefly  during  sunlight  hours. 


78  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

Professor  W.  E.  Leonard  of  Minne- 
apolis has  given  a  most  interesting 
account  of  the  pathogenetic  effects  of 
what  is  known  in  medical  literature  as 
lachesis,  to  which  it  seems  appropriate 
to  refer  here  somewhat  in  detail.  The 
late  Dr.  Hering  of  Philadelphia  and 
his  brave  wife  are  its  hero  and  heroine. 
Lachesis  is  the  common  name  of  a 
deadly  poisonous  serpent  named  by 
Linnaeus  Trigonocephalus  lachesis, 
partly  from  its  lance-shaped  head,  and 
partly  from  one  of  the  Greek  Fates, 
and  because  of  the  swift  and  fatal  ef- 
fects of  its  bite.  The  story  of  the  hero- 
ism exhibited  in  obtaining  the  original, 
and  to  this  day  I  believe  the  only,  sup- 
ply of  this  venom,  is  a  thrilling  one,  as 
told  by  Dr.  Hering  himself  in  one  of 
his  Saturday  Evening  Talks  to  groups 
of  students,  and  reported  by  Professor 
Leonard,  who  was  one  of  his  audience:* 

"^  Hoviosopathic  Physz'czaft,  January,  1896. 


Lachesis  and  Dr.  Hering  79 

''  When  a  young  man  of  thirty-five 
he  [Dr.  Hering]  and  his  wife  were  di- 
recting botanical  and  zoological  collect- 
ors from  a  temporary  dwelling  in  the 
edge  of  the  tropical  forests  of  the  upper 
Amazon.  The  natives  who  were  his 
sole  assistants  had  told  him  much  of 
this  deadly  serpent,  and  he  offered  a 
liberal  reward  for  the  capture  of  a  living 
specimen.  Finally  a  bamboo  box  was 
brought  in  hastily  and  placed  in  his 
room.  Immediately,  to  his  amazement, 
not  only  those  capturing  the  serpent, 
but  his  entire  native  household  fled 
precipitately  from  the  place.  They 
saw  no  hope  for  their  master,  or  his 
wife,  if  he  proposed  to  deal  in  any  way 
with  a  living  Chirukiiku,  the  native 
name  for  the  reptile.  He  was  left  to 
obtain  the  venom  from  this  creature 
with  his  wife's  aid  alone,  and  at  the 
imminent  risk  of   his   life.     This   was 


8o  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

done  by  stunning  the  serpent  by  a 
heavy  blow  as  the  box  was  opened, 
then  holding  its  head  in  a  forked  stick 
and  obtaining  the  poison  by  pressing  it 
out  from  the  venom  bag  upon  sugar  of 
milk.     .    . 

"  Thus  handling  and  triturating  the 
virus,  with  the  natural  fear  and  excite- 
ment of  the  adventure,  threw  the  doctor 
into  a  fever  that  night,  with  tossing, 
delirium,  and  mania.  His  faithful  wife 
anxiously  watched  over  him  alone  in 
the  forests,  miles  from  a  human  being, 
and  not  daring  to  think  of  the  probable 
issue  of  a  struggle  with  such  a  mighty 
poison,  and  with  no  knowledge  of  an 
antidote.  Toward  morning  he  slept, 
and  finally  awoke,  his  mental  horizon 
cleared  from  the  passing  storm.    .    . 

"  Before  their  native  help,  one  by 
one,  expecting  to  find  only  corpses, 
crept    sheepishly   back    to   camp,  this 


Lachesis  and  Dr.  Hering  8i 

enthusiastic  couple  had  prepared  all  the 
lachesis  since  used  by  the  profession, 
and  had  begun  a  reliable  pathogenesis 
of  one  of  our  greatest  remedies." 

Hering,  in  his  ''  Condensed  Materia 
Medica,"  enumerates  persiste7it  sleep- 
less7iess  among  the  pathogenetic  symp- 
toms for  which  lachesis  is  a  specific,  on 
the  homoeopathic  principle  that  the  hair 
of  the  dog  that  kills,  will  cure.  Also, 
'' childre7i  toss  about y  moaning  during 
sleeps 

In  the  same  number  of  the  Homceo- 
pathic  Physician^  we  read  on  the  edi- 
torial page  : 

''Lachesis. — The  patient  is  roused 
from  sleep  by  the  aggravation  of  his 
complaint.  The  lachesis  patient  sleeps 
into  an  aggravation.  The  lachesis 
symptoms  are  all  aggravated  by  sleep. 
This  is  Dr.  Guernsey's  keynote  for 
lachesis. 


S2  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

''  The  editor  once  treated  a  baby  for 
starting  when  on  the  point  of  falling 
to  sleep.  Several  remedies  were  given 
without  benefit.  He  resolved  to  watch 
the  patient,  and,  if  possible,  discover  the 
correct  indications  for  a  remedy.  It 
was  observed  that  the  child,  which  was 
excessively  drowsy,  would  fall  to  sleep, 
sleep  for  about  twenty  seconds,  and 
then  would  be  seized  with  a  sort  of 
general  convulsion  of  the  whole  sys- 
tem, which  would  rouse  it  from  sleep 
with  much  crying  and  weeping.  Then 
it  would  again  fall  to  sleep,  with  a 
repetition  of  the  same  occurrences, 
and  so  on  during  the  entire  day  and 
night.  Lachesis  was  now  given,  when 
the  whole  series  of  symptoms  subsided 
in  the  course  of  an  hour,  the  child 
slept  peacefully  the  whole  night,  and 
there  never  has  been  any  return  of  the 
trouble." 


Sleep  and  the  Serpent  83 

I  refer  at  so  much  length  to  the 
venom  of  the  lachesls  as  a  remedial 
agent,  because  it  is,  I  believe,  a  rare,  if 
not  the  only  instance  of  any  deadly 
serpent's  venom  having  been  tested, 
and  its  effects  upon  the  human  system 
carefully  noted  in  minute  detail,  and 
classified  by  a  professional  man  emi- 
nently qualified  for  such  a  task.  It 
will  be  observed  that  the  most  con- 
spicuous effects  of  this  poison, ''  its  key- 
note," to  use  a  professional  phrase,  is 
hostility  to  sleep,  and  when  sleep  does 
intervene,  to  aggravate  all  other  symp- 
toms, as  if  it  and  sleep  were  the  dead- 
liest and  wholly  unreconcilable  enemies. 
It  achieves  its  victories  over  its  victims 
more  swiftly  than  mere  privation  of 
sleep  induced  by  most  other  causes  Is 
supposed  to,  but  in  both  cases,  priva- 
tion of  sleep  seems  to  be  the  one 
symptom   without  the  concurrence  of 


84  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

which  none  of  the  others  would  neces- 
sarily be  fatal. 

When  we  reflect  that  the  serpent 
in  all  ages  has  been  the  symbol  of 
what  was  most  fatal  to  man's  peace ; 
that  it  was  the  serpent  that  first 
brought  temptation  and  disobedience 
into  the  world ;  that  the  head  of  Me- 
dusa, with  its  snaky  hair,  with  the 
Greeks,  was  the  symbol  of  the  para- 
lyzing influence  of  vice  ;  that  Mercury's 
wand  was  composed  of  the  figures  of 
two  fighting  serpents,  and  that  he  com- 
menced his  career  as  a  divinity  by 
stealing  the  oxen  of  Apollo  ;  and  when 
we  reflect  that  serpent  worship  pre- 
vails almost  universally  among  sav- 
ages who  fear  the  power  and  cunning 
of  serpents,  and  try  to  propitiate  them 
by  paying  them  divine  honors ;  if  it 
be  true,  as  there  is  ample  warrant  for 
presuming,     "  a   reason   more    perfect 


Sleep  and  the  Serpent  85 

than  reason,  and  influenced  by  its  par- 
tialities, is  at  work  in  us  when  we 
sleep ";  if,  as  the  pagan  philosopher 
affirmed,  ''  the  night-time  of  the  body 
is  the  daytime  of  the  soul ";  if  our 
Father  which  is  in  heaven,  ''  giveth 
his  beloved  in  their  sleep,"  how  natu- 
rally and  instinctively  we  associate  the 
serpent's  deadly  bite,  so  fatal  to  sleep 
and  life,  with  the  fearful  curse  de- 
nounced against  the  first  of  the  rep- 
tiles of  whom  we  have  any  record, 
through  whose  subtlety  temptation 
and  sin  first  came  into  the  world  : 
"  Because  thou  hast  done  this,  cursed 
art  thou  above  all  cattle  and  above 
every  beast  of  the  field ;  upon  thy 
belly  shalt  thou  go  and  dust  shalt 
thou  eat  all  the  days  of  thy  life  :  And 
/  will  put  enmity  between  thee  and  the 
woman  and  between  thy  seed  and  her 
seed :  it  shall  bruise  thy  head  and  thou 


S6  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

shalt  bruise  his  heel."  It  would  seem 
that  the  serpent  in  the  Bible  symbol- 
izes every  form  of  temptation  to  evil 
or  sin,  and  that  only  in  our  sleep  are 
the  weapons  forged  with  which  we  can 
successfully  contend  with  them. 

Shakespeare,  who  was  no  less  unap- 
proachable for  his  philosophic  insight 
than  as  a  poet,  makes  Ccssar  say  : 

Let  me  have  men  about  me  that  are  fat ; 
Sleek-headed  men,  and  such  as  sleep  d  nights  : 
Yond  Cassius  has  a  lean  and  hungry  look  ; 

.  .  .  but  I  fear  him  not ; 
Yet  if  my  name  were  liable  to  fear, 
I  do  not  know  the  man  I  should  avoid 
So  soon  as  that  spare  Cassius. 

Seldom  he  smiles  ;   and  smiles  in  such  a  sort 
As  if  he  mock'd  himself,  and  scorn'd  his  spirit 
That  could  be  mov'd  to  smile  at  any  thing. 
Such  men  as  he  be  never  at  heart's  ease 
Whiles  they  behold  a  greater  than  themselves  ; 
And  therefore  are  they  very  dangerous. 

So  again  Brutus  was  selected  by 
the  partisans  hostile  to  CcBsar,  and  was 
set  on  to  be  the  leader  in  the  conspir- 


Shakespeare  on  Sleep  87 

acy   against   him   because,  as    Cassins 
expressed  it, 

He  sits  high  in  all  the  people's  hearts : 
And  that  which  would  appear  offence  in  us, 
His  countenance,  like  richest  alchemy, 
Will  change  to  virtue  and  to  worthiness. 

After  calling  his  servant,  Lucius, 
several  times  without  receiving  any 
reply, — it  is  after  midnight  and  the 
man  is  asleep, — Brutus  exclaims  : 

I  would  it  were  my  fault  to  sleep  so  soundly. 

In  the  same  scene  Lucius  is  again 
caught  napping.     Briitus  calls  : 

Boy  !     Lucius  !— Fast  asleep  ?     It  is  no  matter; 
Enjoy  the  heavy  honey-dew  of  slumber  : 
'Thou  hast  no  figures  nor  no  fantasies, 
Which  busy  care  draws  in  the  brains  of  men ; 
Therefore  thou  sleep'st  so  sound. 

When  Ltichis  is  gone  and  leaves 
Bruttts  alone  he  says  : 

Since  Cassius  first  did  whet  me  against  Caesar, 
I  have  not  slept. 

Between  the  acting  of  a  dreadful  thing 
And  the  first  motion,  all  the  interim  is 


88  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

Like  a  phantasma,or  a  hideous  dream  : 
The  Genius  and  the  mortal  instruments 
Are  then  in  council ;  and  the  state  of  man, 
Like  to  a  little  kingdom,  suffers  then 
The  nature  of  an  insurrection. 

The  pertinacity  with  which  Shakes- 
peare dwells  upon  the  sleeplessness 
of  Brutus  from  the  time  he  began 
to  entertain  the  suspicion  that  the 
liberties  of  Rome  depended  upon  the 
immediate  death  of  CcssaVy  is  one  of 
the  marvels  of  this  marvellous  play. 
A  little  later  in  the  piece,  Cassius 
apologizes  for  entering  and  disturbing 
Bruttis'  rest,  Brutus  replies  that  he 
has  been  awake  all  night.  In  the 
same  scene  Portia,  his  wife,  enters  to 
remonstrate  with  him : 

Brutus.  Portia,  what  mean  you   .   .   .   now? 
It  is  not  for  your  health  thus  to  commit 
Your  weak  condition  to  the  raw-cold  morning. 

Portia.  Nor  for  yours  neither.    You've  ungently, 
Brutus, 
Stole  from  my  bed  :  and  yesternight,  at  supper. 
You  suddenly  arose,  and  walk'd  about. 


Shakespeare  on  Sleep  89 

Musing  and  sighing,  with  your  arms  across  ; 

And  when  I  ask'd  you  what  the  matter  was, 

You  star'd  upon  me  with  ungentle  looks  :  .    .   . 

But  with  an  angry  wafture  of  your  hand, 

Gave  sign  for  me  to  leave  you  :  so  I  did  ; 

Fearing  to  strengthen  that  impatience 

"Which   seem'd   too   much   enkindled.   .    .    Dear   my 

lord. 
Make  me  acquainted  with  your  cause  of  grief. 

Brictus.  I  am  not  well  in  health,  and  that  is  all. 

Portia.  Brutus  is  wise,  and,  were  he  not  in  health, 
He  would  embrace  the  means  to  come  by  it. 

BruUts.  Why,  so  I  do. — Good  Portia,  go  to  bed. 

Portia.  Is  Brutus  sick  ?    .    .    . 
And  wiirhe  steal  out  of  his  wholesome  bed  ,   .    .   . 
And  tempt  the  rheumy  and  unpurged  air 
To  add  unto  his  sickness  }     No,  my  Brutus  ; 
You  have  some  sick  offence  within  your  mind. 
Which,  by  the  right  and  virtue  of  my  place, 
I  ought  to  know  of :  and,  upon  my  knees, 
I  charm  you,  by  my  once-commended  beauty, 
By  all  your  vows  of  love,  and  that  one  great  vow 
Which  did  incorporate  and  make  us  one, 
That  you  unfold  to  me,  yourself,  your  half, 
Why  you  are  heavy  ;  and  what  men  to-night 
Have  had  resort  to  you, — for  here  have  been 
Some  six  or  seven,  whv"*  did  hide  their  faces 
Even  from  darkness. 

I  am  still  far  from  having  exhausted 
all  that  Shakespeare  has  to  teach  us 
on  the  subject  of  sleep  or  its  privation. 


90  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

Whatever  takes  a  deep  hold  upon  a 
mind  like  Shakespeare's  can  always  be 
studied  with  profit,  and  the  prominence 
he  gave  to  both,  in  his  plays,  warrants 
the  belief  that  few  of  the  phenomena 
of  sleep  or  of  sleeplessness  escaped  his 
incomparable  powers  of  observation. 
No  one  familiar  with  his  plays  will 
often  think  of  sleep  as  a  condition  of 
existence,  without  being  reminded  of 
that  thrilling  soliloquy  of  Henry  IV.: 

How  many  thousand  of  my  poorest  subjects 

Are  at  this  hour  asleep  !— O  Sleep,  O  gentle  Sleep, 

Nature's  soft  nurse,  how  have  I  frighted  thee, 

That  thou  no  more  wilt  weigh  my  eyelids  down, 

Nor  steep  my  senses  in  forgetfulness  ? 

Why  rather,  Sleep,  liest  thou  in  smoky  cribs. 

Upon  uneasy  pallets  stretching  thee, 

And  hush'd  with  buzzing  night-flies  to  thy  slumber. 

Than  in  the  perfum'd  chambers  of  the  great. 

Under  the  canopies  of  costly  state, 

And  lull'd  with  sounds  of  sweetest  melody  ? 

O  thou  dull  god,  why  liest  thou  with  the  vile 

In  loathsome  beds,  and  leav'st  the  kingly  couch 

A  watch  case  or  a  common  'larum  bell  ? 

Wilt  thou  upon  the  high  and  giddy  mast 

Seal  up  the  ship-boy's  eyes,  and  rock  his  brains 


Shakespeare  on  Sleep  91 

In  cradle  of  the  rude  imperious  surge, 

And  in  the  visitation  of  the  winds, 

Who  take  the  ruffian  billows  by  the  top, 

Curling  their  monstrous  heads,  and  hanging  them 

With  deafening  clamor  in  the  slippery  shrouds, 

That,  with  the  hurly,  death  itself  awakes  ? — 

Canst  thou,  O  partial  Sleep,  give  thy  repose 

To  the  wet  sea-boy  in  an  hour  so  rude ; 

And  in  the  calmest  and  most  stillest  night. 

With  all  appliances  and  means  to  boot. 

Deny  it  to  a  king  ?     Then,  happy  low,  lie  down  ! 

Uneasy  lies  the  head  that  wears  a  crown. 

Quee7t  Margaret  thus  brings  her 
curse  of  the  villanous  Gloster  to  a 
climax  : 

No  sleep  close  up  that  deadly  eye  of  thine. 
Unless  it  be  while  some  tormenting  dream 
Affrights  thee  with  a  hell  of  ugly  devils  ! 

The  Witch,  In  enumerating  the  ca- 
lamities In  store  for  Macbeth,  says  : 

Sleep  shall  neither  night  nor  day 
Hang  upon  his  pent-house  lid  ; 
He  shall  live  a  man  forbid. 

Lady  Percy  says  to  Hotspzcr  : 

Why  hast  thou  lost  the  fresh  blood  in  thy  cheeks 
And  given  my  treasures  and  my  rights  of  thee 


92  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

To  thick-ey'd  musing  and  curs'd  melancholy  ? 

Tell  me,  sweet  lord,  what  is't  that  takes  from  thee 
Thy  stomach,  pleasure,  and  thy  golden  sleep? 

lago,  after  poisoning  the  jealous 
nature  of  Othello,  says  : 

Not  poppy,  nor  mandragora, 
Nor  all  the  drowsy  syrups  of  the  world, 
Shall  ever  medicine  thee  to  that  sweet  sleep 
Which  thou  ow'dst  yesterday. 

With  exquisite  art  Shakspeare  makes 
Macbeth  expatiate  upon  the  blessed- 
ness of  *'  innocent  sleep "  after  his 
murder  of  Duncan,  and  after  he  had 
forfeited  forever  the  capacity  of  en- 
joying  it  himself  : 

Methought  I  heard  a  voice  cry  "  Sleep  no  more  ! 
Macbeth  does  murder  sleep," — the  innocent  sleep. 
Sleep  that  knits  up  the  ravel'd  sleave  of  care, 
The  death  of  each  day's  life,  sore  labor's  bath, 
Balm  of  hurt  minds,  great  nature's  second  course, 
Chief  nourisher  in  life's  feast. 

Later  on   in  the  same  play  we  read : 

With  Him  above 
To  ratify  the  work — we  may  again 
Give  to  our  tables  meat,  sleep  to  our  nights. 


Sleeping  in  Church  93 

The    Abbess    in    the    ''  Comedy    of 
Errors  "  says  to  Adriana: 

The  venom-clamors  of  a  jealous  woman 
Poison  more  deadly  than  a  mad-dog's  tooth. 
It  seems  his  sleeps  were  hinder'd  by  thy  railing  •. 

In  food,  in  sport,  and  life-preserving  rest 
To  be  disturb'd,  would  mad  or  man  or  beast. 

I  fancy  it  to  be  much  less  of  a  re- 
proach than  is  commonly  supposed  to 
fall  asleep  in  a  house  of  worship.  To 
the  devout  worshipper  the  tendency  of 
every  thing  in  the  house  of  God  is,  or 
should  be,  as  in  sleep,  to  separate  him 
from  the  world.  In  the  degree  in 
which  our  devotions  are  unmixed, 
undiluted  with  selfish,  worldly,  and 
personal  considerations,  our  will  is  also 
quiescent  as  in  sleep.  *' Rousing  ser- 
mons," stirring  pulpit  oratory,  may 
stimulate  the  intellect  and  keep  even 
the  devoutest  people  wakeful,  but  it 
does  not  follow  that  they   make   the 


94  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

exercises  of  the  Sabbath  more  profit- 
able, at  least,  to  all.  The  most  wide- 
awake people  in  church  may  be  in 
a  closer  relation  with  the  world 
than  with  their  Creator,  who,  in  the 
language  of  the  prophet,  may  be 
''near  in  their  mouth  and  far  from 
their   reins." 

It  is  not  uncommon  for  those  who 
have  no  habit  or  inclination  to  sleep 
during  the  morning  hours  of  secular 
days,  to  be  overcome  with  somnolency 
in  church  soon  after  the  devotional 
exercises  are  begun,  and  who  find  it 
impossible  to  derive  any  edification 
from  them  until  they  have  lost  them- 
selves for  a  moment  or  two  in  absolute 
unconsciousness.  Then  they  have  no 
difficulty,  sometimes  a  lively  pleasure, 
in  attending  to  the  exercises  which 
follow.  How  is  this  change  to  be  ex- 
plained ?     It  is  true  the  worshipper  is 


Sleeping  in  Church  95 

then  withdrawn  from  the  familiar  ex- 
citement of  customary  avocations,  from 
the  clatter  of  the  street,  from  inter- 
course with  busy  men,  but  it  is  idle  to 
suppose  that  in  these  few  moments 
of  repose,  upright  in  his  pew,  he  has 
rested  enough,  in  the  common  accepta- 
tion of  that  word,  to  repair  any  waste 
of  tissue  that  would  explain  the  new 
sense  of  refreshment  that  ensues.  He 
has  received,  In  that  brief  retirement 
from  the  world,  some  reinforcements 
which  manifestly  are  not  dependent 
upon  time  or  space  for  their  efficacy — 
spiritual  reinforcements,  and  spiritual 
reinforcements  only.  He  has  removed 
himself,  or  been  removed  farther  away, 
out  of  sight  or  hearing  or  thinking,  so 
to  speak,  of  his  phenomenal  life,  and 
nearer  to  the  Source  of  all  life.  He 
awakes  to  find  himself  a  changed 
man,  less  exacting,  less  critical  about 


96  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

the  sermon  or  the  preacher  or  the 
choir  or  the  composition  of  the  con- 
gregation, and  more  liberal  to  the  con- 
tribution plate,  while  he  finds  in  what 
he  hears  or  reads  much  fruitful  sug- 
gestion, for  which  he  was  but  imper- 
fectly prepared  when  he  entered  the 
church. 

Perhaps  if  the  worshipper,  before 
leaving  home,  were  to  take  more 
pains  to  get  into  a  proper  frame  of 
mind  to  meet  God  in  his  holy  temple, 
and  to  keep  silence  before  him,  these 
recesses  during  the  service  might  be 
deferred  until  ''  shut  of  day,"  without 
prejudice. 

A  quasi  physiological  explanation 
of  the  spiritualizing  function  of  sleep, 
from  the  pen  of  an  eminent  English 
physician,  goes  far  to  reconcile  the 
views  here  taken  with  the  teachings  of 
modern  science.     Dr.  J.  J.  G.  Wilkin- 


J.  J.  G.  Wilkinson  97 

son,  in  a  treatise  on  the  human  body, 
says  : 

"  If  all  that  is  animal  really  died 
down  to  the  surface  of  the  earth  in 
the  seasons  of  sleep,  the  body,  heavy 
mass  as  it  is,  and  belonging  of 
right  to  the  ground^  would  be  in  the 
clutches  of  the  grave,  irrecallable  from 
its  congenial  gravitation.  To  prevent 
this  there  are  two  brains,  a  constant 
and  inconstant,  but  each  correspond- 
ing to  the  other.  The  cerebellum 
does  unconsciously  and  permanently 
whatever  the  cerebrum  performs 
rationally  and  by  fits.  The  cerebellum 
follows  and  adopts  the  states  induced 
by  the  cerebrum  on  the  organization, 
and  holds  the  notes  of  the  ruling 
mind.  Thus,  immediately  after  sleep, 
the  motions  of  thought  may  begin  at 
once,  for  they  have  not  been  organi- 
cally, but  only  consciously,  suspended. 
7 


98  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

We  see  this  in  an  image  in  the  lungs. 
If  the  latter  were  voluntary  organs,  the 
man  would  cease  breathing  so  soon  as 
he  fell  asleep.  But  they  are  voluntary 
and  involuntary,  the  latter  when  not 
the  former;  and  the  movement  is 
always  proceeding,  night  and  day,  so 
that  it  has  not  to  be  created,  but  what 
is  an  easy  matter,  merely  directed  into 
the  voluntary  channels.  Similarly  so 
with  the  organic  motions  of  thought 
and  will ;  these  are  always  going  on, 
and  merely  require  direction,  not  crea- 
tion, by  the  cerebrum.  Concordantly 
V  with  this  we  can  explain  sleep  and 
"^^^  much  that  occurs  in  sleep  :  e.  £-.,  the 
fact  that  our  thoughts  and  judgments 
are  marvellously  cleared  and  arranged 
during  that  state ;  as  though  a  reason 
more  perfect  than  reason,  and  unin- 
fluenced by  its  partialities,  had  been  at 
work  when  we  were  in  our  beds.   Thus, 


J.  J.  G.  Wilkinson  99 

also,  that  our  first  waking  thoughts  are 
often  our  finest  and  truest;  and  that 
dreams  are  something  eminent  and 
wise  ;  which  phenomena  are  incompati- 
ble with  the  idea  that  we  die  down  like 
grass  into  our  organic  roots  at  night 
and  are  resuscitated,  as  from  a  winter, 
in  the  morning.  And  it  must  again  be 
adverted  to  that  this  would  not  suit 
the  Grand  Economist ;  for  after  Nature 
has  ascended  to  our  plateau  of  life, 
represented  by  day,  she  will  surely  not 
tumble  down  into  the  valley  because 
rest  is  needed,  but  will  pitch  her  tent 
andr^make  her  couch  on  that  elevation. 
We  conclude,  then,  that  the  cerebrum 
is  the  brain  of  the  mind,  and  the  cere- 
bellum the  corresponding  brain  of  the 
body ;  and,  as  during  sleep  the  cere- 
brum is  a  body,  the  cerebellum  at  such 
time  is  the  brain  of  the  cerebrum  also. 
*'  Man,"  then,  as  we  see,  ''  is  captured 


loo  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

in  sleep,  not  by  death,  but  by  his  better 
nature;  to-day  runs  in  through  a 
deeper  day  to  become  the  parent  of 
to-morrow  ;  and  the  man  issues  every 
morning,  bright  as  the  morning,  and  of 
life-size,  from  the  peaceful  womb  of  the 
cerebellum."  ^' 

The  distinction  between  our  volun- 
tary respiration  and  our  involuntary 
respiration,  during  sleep,  to  which  Dr. 
Wilkinson  here  directs  our  attention, 
and  with  which  we  are  all  familiar, 
harmonizes  curiously  with  a  doctrine 
which  Swedenborg  professed  to  have 
authority  for  teaching.  We  are  all 
endowed,  he  has  told  us,  with  a  faculty 
for  two  distinct  kinds  of  respiration, 
one  the  external,  with  which  we  are 
familiar,    and    the    other    internal,    of 

***The  Human  Body  and  its  Connection  with  Man 
Illustrated  by  the  Principal  Organs,"  by  James  John 
Garth  Wilkinson,  Member  of  the  Royal  College  of 
Surgeons  of  England.    London,  1851,  p.  51. 


Internal  Respiration  loi 

which  very  few  are  conscious.  He 
tells  us  he  was  first  habituated  to  in- 
sensible breathing  in  his  infancy  when 
at  morning  and  evening  prayers,  and 
that  for  a  number  of  years  he  was 
accustomed  to  internal  respiration, 
mainly  by  intense  thought,  in  which 
external  breathing  ceases. 

We  are  all  familiar  with  cases  of 
more  or  less  prolonged  suspension  of 
external  respiration,  in  what  we  term 
the  trance. 

Before  the  Fall,  Swedenborg  adds, 
men  whose  lives  were  animated  by 
love  to  the  Lord  had  internal  respira- 
tion only.  External  respiration  took 
its  place  as  one  of  the  consequences  of 
the  degeneration  of  our  race.  When  ex- 
ternal respiration  is  suspended  for  any 
cause,  consciousness  is  also  suspended, 
as  in  sleep.  Life  may  be  presumed 
thereby    to    be    continued     by    inter- 


I02  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

nal  and  unconscious  respiration.  In 
the  Bible  "  spirit"  and  "  life  "  are  both 
expressed  by  the  same  word,  vrvsv/xa 
or  wind.  ''The  wind  bloweth  where 
it  listeth,"  says  John,  ''  and  thou  hear- 
est  the  voice  thereof,  but  knowest 
not  whence  it  cometh,  and  whither  it 
goeth  :  so  is  every  one  that  is  born 
of  the  Spirit" — or  wind.  In  the 
original  the  same  word  is  used  for 
''wind"  in  the  beginning  and  for 
"Spirit"  at  the  end  of  this  sentence. 
Again  we  read  in  Job :  "  The  Spirit 
of  God  hath  made  me,  and  the 
breath  of  the  Almighty  giveth  me 
life."  Swedenborg  also  tells  us  that 
it  was  given  him  to  know  the  nature 
of  that  internal  respiration  by  experi- 
ence, and  how  since  the  Fall  it  van- 
ished by  degrees,  and  how  angelic 
spirits,  who  are  allotted  to  involuntary 
respiration,  are  present  with  man  dur- 


Internal  Respiration  103 

ing  sleep,  for  so  soon  as  he  sleeps 
the  voluntary  principle  of  respiration 
ceases,  and  the  sleeper  receives  an 
involuntary  faculty  of  respiration. 

Upon  this  subject  of  internal  respi- 
ration, of  which  Swedenborg  claims  to 
have  been  the  first  to  be  advised,  he 
is,  unfortunately,  neither  as  full  nor 
as  clear  as  one  could  wish.  Perhaps 
greater  clearness  is  not  practicable  in 
any  spoken  or  written  language. 


CHAPTER  VI 

The  Need  for  Sleep  Diminishes  as  the  Organization  of 
Life  Becomes  More  Complex — Buf!on — Repose  No 
More  the  Final  Purpose  of  Sleep  than  the  Gratifica- 
tion of  our  Palate  the  Final  Purpose  of  Hunger — The 
Statue  of  Sleep  in  Honor  of  ^sculapius — Letter  of 
lamblichus 

As  we  descend  in  the  scale  of  organ- 
ized life,  the  proportion  of  time  spent 
in  sleep  seems  to  increase  until  we 
reach  a  point  where  life  is  apparently 
a  continuous  sleep.  "An  oyster," 
says  Buffon,  "which  does  not  seem  to 
have  any  sensible  exterior  movement 
nor  external  sense,  is  a  creature  formed 
to  sleep  always.  A  vegetable  is  in 
this  sense  but  an  animal  that  sleeps, 
and  in  general  the  functions  of  every 
organized  being  lacking  power  of 
movement  and  the  senses,  may  be 
compared  to  the  functions  of  an  ani- 


Buffon  105 

mal  who  should  be  constrained  by 
nature  to  sleep  continually. 

*'  In  the  animal  the  state  of  sleep  is 
not  an  accidental  one,  occasioned  by 
the  orreater  or  less  exercise  of  its 
faculties  while  awake  ;  it  is,  on  the  con- 
trary, an  essential  mode  of  being,  which 
serves  as  the  base  of  all  animal  econ- 
omy. Our  existence  begins  in  sleep  ; 
the  foetus  sleeps  almost  continually, 
and  the  infant  sleeps  more  hours  than 
it  is  awake. 

"  Sleep,  which  appears  to  be  a  purely 
passive  state,  a  species  of  death,  is,  on 
the  contrary,  the  first  state  of  the  liv- 
ing animal  and  the  foundation  of  life. 
It  is  not  a  privation,  an  annihilation  ;  it 
is  a  mode  of  being,  a  style  of  exist- 
ence as  real  and  more  general  than 
any  other.  We  exist  in  this  state 
before  existing  in  any  other;  all 
organized  beings  which    have  not  the 


x" 


io6  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

senses  exist  in  this  state  only,  while 
none  exist  in  a  state  of  continual 
movement,  and  all  existences  partici- 
pate more  or  less  in  this  state  of 
repose."  * 

As  we  rise  in  the  scale  of  organized 
life,  on  the  other  hand,  we  find  that 
the  time  required  for  sleep  diminishes, 
and  the  quality  of  life  exhibits  a 
corresponding  increase  of  complexity, 
and  a  corresponding  enlargement  of 
function,  until  we  reach  the  highest  of 
organizations,  our  own  species. 

At  the  close  of  a  laborious  day  we 
invariably,  if  in  health,  feel  a  languor 
which  prompts  us  to  take  a  position 
in  which  the  weight  of  our  bodies  will 
be  so  distributed  as  to  invite  sleep — 
for  which,  if  in  health,  we  do  not  have 
to  wait  long.     The  interval  between  its 

*  "  Discours  sur  la  nature  des  Animaux."    TEuvres 
de  Buff  on.    Edition  Flourens,  vol.  ii.  p.  331. 


Why  is  Sleep  a  Mystery?  107 

arrival  and  our  laying  ourselves  in  a 
recumbent  position  is  usually  one  of 
exquisite  pleasure. 

All  our  impressions  of  sleep  are 
formed  before  it  arrives,  and  after  it 
ceases.  We  enjoy  what  we  call  going 
to  sleep,  and  we  enjoy  the  feelings  we 
experience  after  we  have  slept,  but  we 
have  no  consciousness  of  any  physical 
sensation  which  we  have  any  right  to 
attribute  directly  and  exclusively  to 
sleep,  or  of  which  our  senses  can  take 
cognizance.  While  it  is  thus  made 
pleasant  for  us  to  close  our  eyes  and 
relax  our  hold  upon  the  world  for  a 
portion  of  every  twenty-four  hours,  we 
have  no  more  right  to  infer  that  it  is 
merely  that  we  may  remain  in  a 
pleasing  state  of  inactivity  and  insen- 
sibility, than  we  have  to  infer  that  the 
final  purpose  of  hunger  is  to  secure  us 
the  gratifications  of  the  palate,  or  the 


io8  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

final  purpose  of  sexual  attraction  is 
merely  to  gratify  our  sensuality.  As 
in  both  these  cases  the  ends  to  be 
reached  are  of  the  most  far-reaching 
character,  and  the  desires  are  given 
that  the  means  for  the  accomplishment 
of  those  ends  should  not  be  neglected, 
so  our  desire  for  sleep  is  manifestly 
designed  to  promote  in  us  the  growth 
and  development  of  spiritual  graces. 
Our  Maker  could  have  had  no  other 
design  in  our  creation;  he  can  have 
no  other  design  in  the  perpetuation  of 
our  race.  Why  should  Infinite  Wis- 
dom have  assigned  a  less  important 
function  for  the  very  considerable 
portion  of  our  lives  during  which  our 
consciousness  is  suspended  in  sleep, 
than  to  the  function  of  hunger  or  lust  ? 
Why  should  we  resist  the  obvious 
implication  that  in  falling  asleep  we 
are    being   gradually   separated    from 


The  Temple  of  /Esculapius  109 

the  world  of  the  senses — from  the 
cares,  passions,  strifes,  and  struggles 
incident  to  incarnate  existence,  and,  as 
they  seem  to  recede  from  us,  that 
something  flows  into  us  which  yields 
a  pleasure  that  grows  more  unmixed 
and  absolute  until  consciousness  of 
our  external  and  natural  life  altogether 
ceases  ? 

As  angels  in  some  brighter  dreams 

Call  to  the  soul  when  man  doth  sleep  ; 

So  some  strange  thoughts    transcend    our   wonted 

themes 
And  into  glory  peep. 

Pausanius,  in  his  historic  tour  in 
Greece,  describes  a  temple  erected  in 
honor  of  ^Esculapius,  in  the  court 
of  which  he  found  the  figure  of 
OnezroSy  the  god  of  dreams,  and 
beside  it  another  of  Upnos,  or  Sleep, 
putting  a  lion  to  sleep.  To  this  lat- 
ter  figure,    says    Pausanius,    they  had 


no  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

given  the  name   of    Epidotes,  or   the 
Given* 

So  He  giveth  his  beloved  in  their  sleep. 

From  the  writings  of  lamblichus,  at 
one  time  the  head  of  the  school  of 
Neo-Platonists,  it  appears  that  the 
view  here  taken  of  sleep,  as  having  a 
higher  function  than  simply  the  repara- 
tion of  waste,  was  shared  some  fifteen 
centuries  ago  by  thoughtful  men,  who 
did  not  claim  to  speak  by  divine 
inspiration.  In  a  letter  compiled  from 
his  writings,  and  quoted  by  R.  A. 
Vaughan  in  his  "Hours  with  the 
Mystics,"  he  says  : 

''There  is  nothing  unworthy  of 
belief  in  what  you  have  been  told 
concerning  the  sacred  sleep  and 
divination  by  dreams.  I  explain  it 
thus  : 

*From  the  Greek  word  em6idu/j.i,  to  increase,  to 
fatten,  to  give  freely,  to  give  as  a  benevolence. 


lamblichus  m 

"The  soul  has  a  twofold  life,  a 
lower  and  a  higher.  In  sleep  the 
soul  is  freed  from  the  constraint  of 
the  body,  and  enters,  as  one  emanci- 
pated, on  its  divine  life  of  intelligence. 
Then,  as  the  noble  faculty  which 
beholds  the  objects  that  truly  are  the 
objects  in  the  world  of  intelligence, 
stirs  within  and  awakens  to  its  power, 
who  can  be  surprised  that  the  mind, 
which  contains  in  itself  the  principles 
of  all  that  happens,  should,  in  this,  the 
state  of  liberation,  discern  the  future 
in  those  antecedent  principles  which 
will  make  that  future  what  it  is  to  be  ? 
The  nobler  part  of  the  soul  is  thus 
united  by  abstraction  to  higher  natures, 
and  becomes  a  participant  in  the  wisdom 
and  foreknowledge  of  the  gods. 

"  Recorded  examples  of  this  are 
numerous  and  well  authenticated ;  in- 
stances occur,  too,  every  day.      Num- 


112  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

bers  of  sick,  by  sleeping  in  the  temple 
of  yEsculapius,  have  had  their  cure 
revealed  to  them  in  dreams  vouch- 
safed by  the  god.  Would  not  Alex- 
ander's army  have  perished  but  for  a 
dream,  in  which  Dionysius  pointed  out 
the  means  of  safety  ?  Was  not  the 
siege  of  Aphritis  raised  through  a 
dream  sent  by  Jupiter  Ammon  to 
Lysander.  The  night-time  of  the  body 
is  the  day  time  of  the  souiy 


CHAPTER  VII 

Swedenborg's  External  and  Internal  Memory — Coleridge's 
"Body  Terrestrial"  and  "Body  Celestial"— The 
Operations  of  our  Non-phenomenal  Life  Presumably 
as  Important  as  Those  of  our  Phenomenal  Life 

Whenever  we  think,  we  abstract 
ourselves  from  the  phenomenal  world, 
and  just  in  proportion  to  the  pro- 
fundity of  our  thought,  or  the  degree 
of  our  interest  in  the  subject  of  our 
meditations,  will  be  the  completeness 
of  our  abstraction. 

The  mind  while  acting  takes  note 
only  of  the  facts  before  it.  It  has 
nothing  more  to  do  with  the  external 
world  than  a  mill  has  to  do  with  pro- 
ducing, shelling,  or  transporting  the 
grain  that  is  thrown  into  its  hopper. 
The  mill  only  grinds  what  is  put  into 
it.     The  rapidity  of  the  mind's  action 


114  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

is  so  great  that  we  have  no  faculties 
capable  of  perceiving  when  the  several 
operations  of  the  mind,  memory,  and 
will  begin  and  end,  in  reaching  any 
conclusion.  The  fingers  of  the  musi- 
cian seem  to  run  over  the  keys  of  the 
piano  with  the  rapidity  of  lightning, 
but  the  will,  mind,  and  memory  act 
independently  at  every  note.  The 
will  indicates  the  note  to  be  produced, 
the  memory  reports  the  key  that  pro- 
duces that  note,  the  mind  selects  the 
proper  finger  and  directs  that  note  to 
be  struck.  There  the  mind  would 
rest  if  the  will  and  the  memory  did  not 
suggest  another  note.  This  process  is 
repeated  throughout  the  score,  until 
the  tune  is  finished.  The  mind  is 
a  servant  of  the  will,  of  which  the 
memory  is  a  messenger.  Through 
them  the  mind  is  occupied  with  phe- 
nomenal   life.     Suspend  the  action  of 


The  Internal  Memory  115 

the  memory,  and  then  the  mind  works 
independently  of  the  external  or  phe- 
nomenal world,  and  that  we  suppose 
to  be  its  condition  in  sleep.  How  the 
mind  is  occupied  in  this  condition  I 
have  already  given  some  conjectures 
of  my  own,  and  such  intimation  as  I 
have  been  able  to  gather  from  the 
sacred  Scriptures.  I  venture  now  to 
quote  here  a  few  passages  from  the 
writings  of  one  of  the  most  eminent 
philosophers  of  the  last  century, — to 
whose  writings  I  have  already  had 
occasion  to  refer, — which  I  cannot  help 
thinking  worthy  of  careful  consider- 
ation by  those  who  may  have  followed 
me  thus  far  in   this  exploration. 

Emanuel  Swedenborg  professed  to 
have  authority  for  affirming  that  we 
are  endowed  with  two  memories,  one 
a  natural  or  external  memory  and  the 
other  an  internal  or  spiritual  memory, 


ii6  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

the   functions  of   which,  however,  are 
in  some  respects  quite  distinct. 

In  the  external  memory  are  re- 
corded the  events  of  our  every-day 
experience.  In  the  internal  memory 
are  preserved  not  only  those  events  to 
the  minutest  detail,  but  the  motive, 
end,  or  moral  quality  of  each  shining 
through  them.      He  says  : 

*'  It  is  scarce  known  to  any  one  at 
this  day,  that  every  man  has  two 
memories,  one  exterior,  the  other  in- 
terior ;  and  that  the  exterior  is  proper 
to  his  body,  but  the  interior  proper  to 
his  spirit.     .    . 

*'  These  two  memories  are  alto- 
gether distinct  from  each  other ;  to 
the  exterior  memory,  which  is  proper 
to  man  during  his  life  in  the  world, 
appertain  all  expressions  by  language, 
also  all  objects  of  which  the  senses 
take    cognizance,    and     likewise     the 


The  Internal  Memory  117 

scientifics  which  relate  to  the  world  : 
to  the  interior  memory  appertain  the 
ideas  of  spirit,  which  are  of  the  inte- 
rior sight,  and  all  rational  things,  from 
the  ideas  whereof  thought  itself  exists. 
That  these  things  are  distinct  from 
each  other,  is  unknown  to  man,  as  well 
because  he  does  not  reflect  thereupon, 
as  because  he  is  incorporate,  and  can- 
not so  easily  withdraw  his  mind  from 
corporeal  things. 

"Hence  it  is  that  men,  during  their 
life  in  the  body,  cannot  discourse  with 
each  other  but  by  languages  distin- 
guished into  articulate  sounds,  and  can- 
not understand  each  other  unless  they 
are  acquainted  with  those  languages  ; 
the  reason  is,  because  this  is  done  from 
the  exterior  memory  ;  whereas,  spirits  * 

*  Spiritus  inter  se  loquantur  per  Linguam  univer- 
salem,  in  ideas,  quales  sunt  ipsius  cogitationis,  dis- 
tinctam  et  sic  quod  conversari  possint  cum  unoquovis 


ii8  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

converse  with  each  other  by  a  univer- 
sal language  distinguished  into  ideas, 
of  their  thought,  and  thus  can  con- 
verse with  every  spirit,  of  whatsoever 
language  or  nation  he  may  have 
been  ;  because  this  is  done  from  the 
interior  memory  ;  every  man,  immedi- 
ately after  death,  comes  into  the  com- 
prehension of  this  universal  language, 
because  he  comes  into  this  interior 
memory,  which  is  adapted  to  his 
spirit. 

**  The  speech  of  words,  as  just  inti- 
mated, is  the  speech  proper  to  man  ; 
and  indeed,  to  his  corporeal  memory  ; 
but  a  speech  consisting  of  ideas  of 
thought  is  the  speech  proper  to  spirits ; 
and,  indeed,  to  the  interior  memory, 
which  is  the  memory  of  spirits.  It  is 
not  known  to  men  that  they  possess 

spiritu  cujuscumque  linguae  et  nationis  in  mundo 
fuerat. — Arcana  Ccelestia,  §  1772. 


The  Internal  Memory  119 

this  interior  memory,  because  the 
memory  of  particular  or  material 
things,  which  is  corporeal,  is  ac- 
counted every  thing,  and  darkens 
that  which  is  interior ;  when,  neverthe- 
less, without  interior  memory,  which 
is  proper  to  the  spirit,  man  would  not 
be  able  to  think  at  all. 

''Whatsoever  things  a  man  hears 
and  sees,  and  is  affected  with,  these  are 
insinuated,  as  to  ideas  and  final  mo- 
tives or  ends,  into  his  interior  memory, 
without  his  being  aware  of  it,  and  there 
they  remain,  so  that  not  a  single  im- 
pression is  lost,  although  the  same 
things  are  obliterated  in  the  exterior 
memory ;  the  interior  memory,  there- 
fore, is  such,  that  there  are  inscribed  in 
it  all  the  particular  things,  yea,  the 
most  particular,  which  man  has  at  any 
time  thought,  spoken,  and  done,  yea, 
which    have   appeared    to    him    only 


I20  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

shadowy,  with  the  most  minute  circum- 
stances, from  his  earliest  infancy  to 
extreme  old  age  :  man  has  with  him 
the  memory  of  all  these  things  when  he 
comes  into  another  life,  and  is  succes- 
sively brought  into  all  recollection  of 
them  ;  this  is  the  Book  of  his  Life 
{Liber  ejus  Vitce)  which  is  opened  in 
another  life,  and  according  to  which 
he  is  judged ;  all  final  motives  or 
ends  of  his  life,  which  were  to  him 
obscure ;  all  that  he  had  thought,  and 
likewise  all  that  he  had  spoken  and 
done,  as  derived  from  those  ends,  are 
recorded,  to  the  most  minute  circum- 
stances, in  that  Book,  that  is,  in 
the  interior  memory,  and  are  made 
manifest  before  the  angels,  in  a  light  as 
clear  as  day,  whensoever  the  Lord  sees 
good  to  permit  it :  this  has  at  times 
been  shown  me,  and  evidenced  by  so 
much    and    various     experience,    that 


Coleridge  and  Swedenborg  121 

there    does   not    remain   the   smallest 
doubt  concerning  it.* 

**  Men,  during  their  abode  in  the 
world,  who  are  principled  in  love  to 
the  Lord,  and  in  charity  toward  their 
neighbor,  have  with  themselves,  and  in 

*  Referring  to  a  singular  experience  which  fell  under 
his  own  observation,  while  a  student  at  Gottingen,  S. 
T.  Coleridge  makes  a  comment  which  warrants  us  in 
supposing  that  he  was  consciously  or  unconsciously 
indebted  to  Swedenborg  for  the  views  I  am  about  to 
cite.     He  says : 

"This  fact— it  would  not  be  difficult  to  adduce 
several  of  a  similar  kind — contributes  to  make  it  even 
probable  that  all  thoughts  are  in  themselves  imperish- 
able ;  and  that  if  the  intelligent  faculty  should  be  ren- 
dered more  comprehensive,  it  would  require  only  a 
differently  apportioned  organization — the  body  celestial 
instead  of  the  body  terrestial— to  bring  before  every 
human  soul  the  collective  experience  of  its  whole  past. 
And  this,  perchance,  is  the  Book  of  Judgment,  in  the 
dread  hieroglyphics  of  which  every  idle  word  is  re- 
corded. Yea,  in  the  very  nature  of  a  living  spirit,  it  may 
be  more  possible  that  heaven  and  earth  should  pass 
away  than  that  a  single  act,  a  single  thought,  should  be 
loosened  or  lost  from  that  living  chain  of  causes,  with 
all  the  links  of  which,  conscious  or  unconscious,  the 
free  will,  our  only  absolute  self,  is  co-extensive  and 
co-present." — "  Biographia  Lzterarza,"  Coleridge's 
IVorks,  Harper  &^  Bros.,  i8s3,  vol.  iii.  p.  22g. 


122  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

themselves,  angelic  intelligence  and 
wisdom,  but  hidden  in  the  inmost  of 
their  interior  memory;  which  intelli- 
gence and  wisdom  can  by  no  means 
appear  to  them,  before  they  put  off 
things  corporeal;  then  the  memory  of 
particulars  spoken  of  above,  is  laid 
asleep,  and  they  are  awakened  to  the 
interior  memory,  and  afterward  to  the 
angelic  memory  itself. 

''  A  certain  spirit,  recently  deceased, 
was  indignant  at  not  being  able  to  re- 
member more  of  the  things  which  he 
had  knowledge  of  during  his  life  in 
the  body,  sorrowing  on  account  of  the 
delio-ht  which  he  had  lost,  and  wich 
which  he  had  formerly  been  particu- 
larly gratified  ;  but  he  was  informed, 
that  in  reality  he  had  lost  nothing, 
and  that  he  then  knew  all  and  every 
thing  which  he  had  ever  known,  but 
that  in   another  life  it  was  not  allow- 


The  Internal  Memory  123 

able  for  him  to  call  forth  such  things 
to  observation  ;  and  that  he  should  be 
satisfied  to  reflect,  that  it  was  now  m 
his  power  to  tJmik  arid  speak  much 
better  and  more  perfectly,  without  im- 
mersing his  rational  principle,  as  before, 
in  the  gross,  obscure,  material,  and  cor- 
poreal things  which  were  of  no  use  in 
the  kingdom  to  which  he  was  now  come  : 
and  that  those  things  which  were  in  the 
kingdom  of  the  world,  were  left  behind, 
and  he  had  now  whatever  conduced  to 
the  use  of  eternal  life,  whereby  he 
might  be  blessed  and  happy ;  thus 
that  it  was  a  proof  of  ignorance  to 
believe,  that  in  another  life  there  is 
any  loss  of  intelligence  in  consequence 
of  not  using  the  corporeal  memory, 
when  the  real  case  is,  that  in  propor- 
tion as  the  mind  is  capable  of  bciiig 
withdrawn  from  things  sensual  and 
corporeal,  i7i    the   same   proportion    it 


124  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

is  elevated  into  things  celestial  afid 
spiritual.''  * 

Speaking  of  the  punishments  of 
some  of  the  evil  spirits  in  hell, 
Swedenborg   says  : 

''  Wondering  that  they  were  so 
severely  punished,  I  perceived  that  it 
was  because  their  crime  was  of  so 
enormous  a  kind,  arising  from  the 
necessity  there  is  that  7nan  should  sleep 
in  safety,  since  otherwise  the  human 
race  niiist  necessarily  perish.  I  was 
also  made  aware  that  the  same  thing 
occurs,  although  man  is  ignorant  of 
the  fact,  in  reference  to  others,  whom 
these  spirits  endeavor  by  their  arri- 
fices  to  assault  during  sleep ;  for 
unless  it  be  given  to  converse  with 
spirits,  being  with  them  by  internal 
sense,  it  is  impossible  to  hear,  and 
much  more  to  see,   such  things,   not- 

*  "  Arcana  Coelestia,"  vol.  i.  §§  2469-2479. 


The  Internal  Memory  125 

withstanding  they  happen  alike  to  all. 
The  Lord  is  particularly  watchful  over 
man  during  sleep'' — Dominus  quam 
maxime  custodit  hominem  cum  dormit* 
We  find  in  the  passages  here  cited, 
First.  A  recognition  of  the  exist- 
ence in  man  of  two  mnemonical  func- 
tions, each  quite  distinct  from  the 
other  ;  one  which  takes  note  of  all  our 
thoughts  and  acts  having  an  apparent 
bearing  upon  our  external  or  phe- 
nomenal life  in  this  world ;  the  other, 
which  not  only  takes  note  of  those 
events,  but  which  takes  note  also 
of  the  moral  quality ;  of  the  ultimate 
end  in  which  such  thoughts  or  acts 
originated. 

Second.  That  while  some  of  the 
impressions  which  are  recorded  in 
what  Swedenborg  calls  the  external 
memory  are  ultimately  obliterated,  all 

*"  Arcana  Coelestia,"  vol.  i.  §  959. 


126  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

which  are  recorded  in  what  he  calls 
the  internal  memory  remain,  to  the 
most  minute  particular  and  shade,  from 
the  earliest  infancy,  and  are  absolutely 
imperishable. 

Third.  That  as  in  the  spiritual 
world  there  are  no  limitations  of  time, 
space,  or  sense,  all  communication  is, 
not  by  the  language  of  words  as  in  the 
phenomenal  world,  but  by  the  ideas 
which  phenomena  express  or  represent, 
and  as  ideas  are  not  subject  to  any 
of  the  limitations  of  time,  space,  or 
sense,  the  end  or  final  purpose  of  our 
thoughts  or  acts  are  all  that  leave  an 
impression,  just  as  the  story  or  the 
thouQfht  is  all  that  is  left  on  the 
reader's  mind  by  the  printed  page. 
In  the  words  of  Swedenborg,  ''  Actions 
have  their  quality  from  the  thoughts, 
as  thoughts  have  their  quality  from 
the  ends  purposed." 


The  Internal  Memory  127 

Fourth.  That  In  proportion  as  man 
puts  off  "things  corporeal";  as  he  is 
emancipated  from  his  material,  sen- 
sua!,  worldly  thrall,  he  Is  awakened  to 
a  perception  of  the  intelligence  and 
wisdom  stirred  up  In  his  Interior 
memory. 

As  there  Is  nothing  In  our  Sacred 
Writings,  nor  I  believe  In  any  man's 
experience,  which  can  be  said  to  con- 
flict with  or  render  Improbable  either 
of  these  propositions,  they  Incline  our 
judgment  to  the  belief  that  during  our 
sleep  our  mind  or  soul  Is  occupied  with 
the  stores  of  wisdom  accumulated  In 
the  Internal  memory,  and  In  assimilat- 
ing It  for  our  needs  In  our  waking 
hours  and  worldly  life.  Be  that  as  It 
may,  from  what  we  may  fairly  claim  to 
know  from  our  own  experience  and 
observation  of  the  phenomena  of 
sleep,    and    from  what  we  are  bound 


128  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

to  infer  from  the  teachings  of  the 
sacred  writings  of  all  sects  and 
nations  of  most  considerable  accept- 
ance throughout  the  world,  and  espe- 
cially from  the  Christian's  Bible,  it 
seems  impossible  to  resist  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  final  purposes  of  our 
creation  and  existence,  of  our  esse 
and  our  existere,  are  not  only  as 
operative  during  our  sleeping  as  dur- 
ing our  waking  hours,  but  that  a  work 
is  being  wrought  in  us,  a  process  is 
going  on  in  us,  during  those  hours, 
which  is  not  and  cannot  be  wrought  so 
effectually,  if  at  all,  at  any  other  time ; 
that  we  are  spiritually  growing,  de- 
veloping, ripening  more  continuously, 
while  thus  shielded  from  the  dis- 
tracting influences  of  the  phenomenal 
world,  than  during  the  hours  in  which 
we  are  absorbed  by  them  ;  that  in  the 
language    of    the    pagan   philosopher, 


Overcoming  the  World  129 

*'  the  night-time  of  the  body  is  the  day 
time  of  the  soul."  Our  phenomenal 
life  has  its  specific  lessons  for  us. 
Why  should  not  our  non-phenomenal 
life  also  have  its  specific  lessons  for 
us  ?  Why  should  we  doubt  that  it  is 
in  sleep  that  God  ''  openeth  the  ears  of 
men,  and  sealeth  their  instruction,  that 
he  may  withdraw  man  from  his  pur- 
pose, and  hide  pride  from  man ";  and 
*'  that  he  may  keep  back  his  soul  from 
the  pit "  ?  Does  not  all  that  we  know 
of  sleep,  and  of  its  effects  upon  char- 
acter, tend  to  confirm  every  line  and 
every  word  of  this  definite  and  uncon- 
ditional and  authoritative  statement  of 
Job's  sympathizing  friend  ?  If  there  is 
a  single  precept  of  our  faith  more  fre- 
quently urged  and  insisted  upon  by 
the  Christian  Church  than  any  other, 
it  is  the  necessity  of  overcoming  the 
world.     The  devil  is  called  the  prince 


130  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

of  this  world.     He  boasted  of  the  fact 
to  Jesus.     The  **  world  "  is  a  synonym 
for    all     sorts    of    sensual    lusts    and 
pleasures,  and  for  all  undue  greed  for 
wealth,     dignities,     and    honors.      To 
overcome  the  world,  to  rise  superior  to 
its  temptations,  so  that  they  shall  not 
corrupt  our  life  or  blind  our  judgment, 
is   uniformly  presented   to    us   by  the 
Christian  Church,  as  it  has  been  by  the 
most  enlightened  pagan  sects,  as  the  su- 
preme end  and  purpose  of  our  life  in 
the  flesh.     Is  it  not  precisely  the  func- 
tion of  sleep  to  give  us  for  a  portion 
of    every  day    in  our   lives    a   respite 
from  worldly  influences  which,  uninter- 
rupted, would  deprive  us  of  the  instruc- 
tion,   of   the    spiritual    reinforcements 
necessary   to  qualify  us    to    turn    our 
waking  experience  of  the  world  to  the 
best  account,  without  being  overcome 
by  them  ?     It  is  in  these  hours  that  the 


Divine  Influx  131 

plans  and  ambitions  of  our  external, 
worldly  life  cease  to  interfere  with  or 
obstruct  the  flow  of  the  divine  life  into 
the  will.  Are  not  these  the  occasions 
in  which  God  ''  openeth  the  ears  of 
men  and  sealeth  their  instruction "  ? 


CHAPTER  VIII 

Why  We  Are  not  Permitted  to  be  Conscious  of  the  Ex- 
periences of  the  Soul  in  Sleep — How  We  Should  Order 
our  Lives  to  Reap  the  Utmost  Benefit  from  Sleep 

If  by  the  immutable  laws  of  our 
being,  the  hours  consecrated  to  sleep 
are,  as  I  have  attempted  to  show,  of 
such  vital  importance  to  our  spiritual 
development,  the  ordering  of  our  life, 
so  far  as  it  may  affect  our  sleep,  as- 
sumes a  corresponding  importance. 
No  argument  is  needed  to  prove  that 
we  should  make  it  our  study  to  avoid 
as  far  as  possible  every  thing  calcu- 
lated to  interfere  in  the  slightest  de- 
gree with  its  completeness.  All  such 
disturbances  may  be  presumed  to  come 
from  our  phenomenal  life,  and  so  far, 
at  any  rate,  as  they  do,  they  impair  the 


Why  Sleep  is  a  Mystery  133 

completeness  of  our  isolation  from  the 
world  and  its  works,  and  violate  the 
sacred  mysteries  to  which  it  is  the  pre- 
sumptive purpose  of  sleep  to  admit 
the  soul, — our  real  self, — for  the  recep- 
tion of  such  spiritual  instruction  as  we 
may  be  qualified  to  receive  there,  and 
without  bringing  away  with  us  any 
knowledge  that  can  interfere  with  the 
freedom  of  our  will  or  our  personal 
responsibility  for  what  we  may  do  in 
our  waking  hours. 

I  say  without  bringing  away  any 
thing  that  would  interfere  with  the 
freedom  of  our  will,  because  what  goes 
on  within  us  in  our  sleep  is  a  sacred 
mystery,  and  no  such  mystery  is  with- 
out a  purpose,  nor  is  it  difficult  to 
divine  a  sufficient  purpose  for  that 
mystery.  If  we  were  as  conscious  of 
our  sleeping,  as  of  our  waking  life,  and 
if  our  external  memory,  as  Swedenborg 


134  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

calls  it,  could  bring  away  our  experi- 
ences while  in  that  state ;  could  bring 
away  the  treasures  of  our  interior 
memory,  it  would  interfere  with  our 
freedom  in  precisely  the  same  way  and 
degree,  as  if  we  could  foresee  the 
influence  of  our  acts  and  plans  of 
yesterday  upon  all  the  future  stages  of 
our  existence.  Such  knowledge  would 
be  fatal  to  our  spiritual  growth  and  to 
the  freedom  of  our  will,  through  which 
only  righteousness  thrives  ;  would  give 
place  to  a  blind,  senseless  fatalism. 

We  may  speculate  about  the  pur- 
poses of  Providence  as  revealed  in 
the  sequence  of  the  events  of  our 
daily  life,  but  we  know  nothing,  and 
think  little,  if  any  thing,  of  them  when 
they  occur.  It  is  only  at,  and  long 
after,  their  occurrence  that  we  begin 
to  realize  how  much  more  profoundly 
they  affected   the   tenor  of   our   lives 


How  Sleep  is  Impaired  135 

than  we  then  suspected;  from  what 
perils  we  had  been  protected  by  what 
we  regarded  as  grievous  disappoint- 
ments; from  what  temptations,  which 
we  could  never  have  resisted,  we  had 
been  shielded  by  our  ignorance,  by 
our  weaknesses,  by  discouragements, 
by  poverty,  by  sickness,  etc.  If  God 
in  his  providence  makes  us  so  blind 
to  the  consequence  of  what  we  do  in 
our  waking  hours,  the  wisdom  of 
which  experience  ultimately  compels 
us  not  only  to  admit  but  to  be  thank- 
ful for,  there  is  no  reason  to  question 
the  Divine  Wisdom  in  concealing 
from  us  what  it  is  trying  to  do  for  us 
in  our  sleep,  and  when  the  god  of  this 
world  is  disarmed  and  powerless. 

It  would  be  tedious  to  enumerate 
all  the  things  done  in  what  is  called 
civilized  society  that  consciously  and 
unconsciously  interfere  with  the  qual- 


136  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

ity  and  quantity  of  our  sleep.  A 
volume  would  not  suffice  for  such  a 
record.  I  may  only  speak  of  them  by 
classes. 

First  in  importance  among  these  I 
would  place  what  we  take  into  our 
mouths.  There  is  scarcely  a  table  laid 
in  all  our  broad  land,  if  in  any  other 
part  of  the  civilized  world,  on  which 
will  not  be  found  more  or  less  of  the 
enemies  of  wholesome  sleep ;  condi- 
ments selected  primarily  to  stimulate 
the  appetite,  but  provoking  to  glut- 
tony and  animal  indulgence,  regardless 
of  the  divine  purposes  for  which  we 
were  endowed  with  these  appetites, 
with  the  means  of  gratifying  them, 
and  with  the  power  of  controlling 
them.  It  is  in  fact  worthy  of  the 
profoundest  consideration  that  about 
every  thing  we  take  into  our  mouths 
not  for  the  nourishment  of  our  bodies, 


Enemies  of  Sleep  137 

but  to  provoke  our  appetites,  and  for 
the  sole  pleasure  of  gratifying  them, 
discourages  sleep. 

Next  to  these  in  importance  come 
the  apothecaries'  drug  poisons.  Of 
these  there  are  very  few,  if  any,  the 
direct  or  secondary  action  of  which  is 
not  hostile  to  sleep.  The  uncorrupted 
tastes  and  instincts  of  the  beasts  of 
the  field  reject  them  all,  both  in  sick- 
ness and  in  health. 

Then  comes  the  strife  for  wealth, 
and  power,  and  position,  among  men  ; 
the  undue  accumulation  of  cares  and 
responsibilities,  the  result  in  most 
cases  of  unbridled  ambition,  vanity,  or 
greed. 

It  is  the  middle-aged,  and  old,  who 

suffer  most  from  this  infirmity. 

Care  keeps  his  watch  in  every  old  man's  eye, 
And  where  he  lodges,  Sleep  can  never  lie  ; 
But  where  unbruised  youth,  with  unstuffed  brain 
Doth  crouch  his  limbs,  there  Sleep  doth  reign. 


138  The  Mystery  of  Sleep 

Whenever  a  man  has  reached  two 
score  and  ten,  and,  in  railway  parlance, 
is  started  on  the  down  grade,  he 
should  study  to  simplify  his  life  so  as 
never  to  be  required  to  draw  upon  his 
reserves,  nor  work  under  pressure,  or 
with  a  conscious  overdraft  of  nervous 
force.  A  neglect  of  this  precaution 
is  pretty  certain  to  interfere  with  both 
the  quantity  and  quality  of  our  sleep, 
and  sooner  or  later  to  compel  a  resort 
to  stimulants  of  one  kind  or  another, 
by  which  we  borrow  for  the  day  the 
strength  of  to-morrow,  thus  speed- 
ily to  become  hopelessly  indebted 
to  nature,  the  most  inexorable  of 
creditors. 

All  the  appetites,  propensities,  and 
passions  which  we  cannot  control,  are 
incidental  to  and  evidences  of  our  un- 
regenerate  nature  ;  are  the  weakness 
of  the  flesh  which  it  is  the  end  and 


Enemies  of  Sleep  Disarmed  139 

purpose  of  our  probationary  life  on 
earth  to  subdue.  It  is  a  fact  most 
important,  early  to  learn  and  never  to 
lose  sight  of,  that  all  these  appetites, 
propensities,  and  passions  are  unre- 
lenting enemies  of  sleep.  It  is  the 
most  impressive  illustration  of  the  in- 
flexible logic  of  Providence,  that  as 
they  all,  if  allowed  free  rein,  tend  to 
impair  the  health,  blunt  the  senses  one 
by  one,  diminish,  and  finally  extinguish 
the  enjoyment  they  were  designed 
to  yield ;  they,  in  that  way,  like  old 
age,  are  permitted  to  serve  in  a  meas- 
ure the  purposes  of  sleep,  in  detaching 
man  from  the  world  by  depriving  him 
of  the  means  of  enjoying  what  he 
persists  in  abusing,  and  thus  of  ''  with- 
drawing him  from  his  purpose,  and 
In  keeping  him  from  the  pit." 

THE    END. 


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